Care England, the largest representative body of independent adult social care providers, has today welcomed the clarity provided by the Supreme Court with the Sleep In judgement delivered this morning.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, says:

“After a lot of uncertainty it is useful to have this ruling from the Supreme Court. Our staff are our best resource and need to be valued as such. This is all part of the broader picture of the much needed reform of the adult social care sector which we will continue to press the Government on”.

The verdict on the Royal Mencap Society (Respondent) v Tomlinson-Blake (Appellant) case was delivered today. The case sought to clarity whether home workers who were required to remain at home in their shift and/or residential care workers who ‘sleep in’ were entitled to the national minimum wage for the time that was not spent actually performing some specific activity. https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2018-0160.html The Court ruled in favour of Mencap stating that only the time that care workers spent awake performing work should be classified as working for the National Minimum Wage purposes.

Martin Green continues:

“Care England continues to call for a ten year plan for adult social a key part of which is a workforce plan, akin to that of the NHS, where career progression, pay and rewards are identified. We hope that the Government will take account of this issue and the sector’s economic fragility in its forthcoming Spending Review”.