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There was uproar among care staff employed by Derbyshire County Council in February this year when they were prohibited from receiving a retention payment provided by the authority to 3,900 workers in the private, voluntary and independent sector.

The sweetener was possible thanks to £2.1million of funding from the former NHS Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group, but the council’s own pay policy prevented it being made to its own workforce.

In a meeting of full council on Wednesday (July 13), Emma Crapper, Director of Organisational Development and Policy, presented an amendment to the policy to remove the clause, in the hope it would improve morale among staff and prevent them from leaving.

A controversial policy that meant care workers employed directly by the council missed out on a £500 ‘thank you’ payment provided to agency staff last year has been scrapped in a bid to boost morale.

The authority, like many others across the country, is struggling with a lack of care staff and has been operating rolling recruitment to address this.

The newly-worded document states: “The council has agreed to apply recruitment and retention payments to address recruitment and retention difficulties where these arise subject to the appropriate approval including market supplement payments.”

Members voted unanimously in favour of the amended document.

Derbyshire County Council scraps policy that stopped its own care staff receiving £500 ‘thank you’