County Council chiefs have faced calls to ensure council funds intended to boost care workers pay in Hertfordshire are passed on to staff.

In recent years the county council has allocated additional funds to enable care providers to pay their workers wages that are in excess of both the National Living Wage and the Real Living Wage.

And on Tuesday (25 February) a meeting of the county council agreed to invest £30m"to ensure adult care providers can continue to support residents, including an uplift to care worker pay" in 2025/26.

That means that in 2025/26 the minimum pay for care workers in Hertfordshire should increase to £12.81 – with home care rates increasing to £16.58.

Both of those rates are in excess of the National Living Wage (£12.21) and the Real Living Wage (£12.60).

But despite receiving the higher rates from the county council, concerns have been raised that not all care providers may be passing on the additional funds to the wages of care staff in the county.

And Liberal Democrat councillors have called for the council to seek legal advice to look at whether contracts could be changed, to "require" these additional 'fair pay' payments to be passed on to care staff.

At the meeting Liberal Democrat Cllr Sally Symington highlighted care packages being delivered to those in supported living in Tring.

She said that whereas staff delivering those care packages were being paid in line with the National Living Wage, they had not been receiving the uplift intended by the county council.

And, as a result of this, she suggested the care provider cannot recruit enough staff – suggesting that residents were being "short changed and not getting the care that they need".

Cllr Symington acknowledged that she did not know whether the practice of not passing on the additional funds was isolated to the provider in Tring – or whether it was a more widespread problem.

But, backing a Liberal Democrat amendment to the council's budget, she pushed the council to take legal advice to ensure the payments were being passed on.

"It may be isolated to Tring and one area – it may not be, we don't know" she said.

"Not only do we not know the extent of it, but it appears that the county council is unable to influence it.

"So once that funding is given to the provider they can't ensure that it reaches the care workers.

"So that is why we have proposed this amendment to make sure that we can take the legal advice that is necessary to make sure that the payments that this council is already making to the care providers are passed on to the care workers."

The council needed, she said, to move from "virtue-signalling" to making sure that it is actually happening.

Addressing the Liberal Democrat amendment, executive member for adult care, health and wellbeing Cllr Tony Kingsbury said that he was confident the council had a "robust process" for making sure the funds were passed on.

But he said that, rather than seeking legal advice, he had asked council officers to "keep this under review".

"We are always looking for ways to understand how we can maximise the amount of money that goes to our care workers, whilst ensuring care providers are financially sustainable as well," he said.

"Although I am confident we have a robust process for making sure pay is passed-on I have asked officers to keep this under review, rather than obtaining what seems to be unfunded legal advice."

According to the council's budget document – known as the Integrated Plan or IP – latest data (from 2023/24) records a care workforce vacancy rate of 6.1 per cent in Hertfordshire – equating to 1900 vacant posts.

And the £30m investment has been allocated as part of the council's 25/26 budget, it says, "to ensure adult care providers can continue to support residents, including an uplift to care worker pay".

Backing the inclusion of the additional investment in the budget, Cllr Kingsbury told councillors: "A key area of focus for this portfolio again is the investment of almost £30m for care providers, supporting an increase in the pay of our care workforce and prioritising nursing and dementia care.

"This has been particularly challenging with the increase in National Insurance imposed by the Labour government, likely costing ACS around £10m.

"This continues a significant investment in care workers' pay that has been funded over the past six years in Hertfordshire, accounting for nearly £155m.

"It recognises how much we value our care staff and the vital role they play in the health and care system. For example this has resulted in waiting lists in single figures for home care.

"Although always a challenge we plan to continue this trajectory in future years."

Overall the county council set a services budget of £1.18bn for 2025/26 – of which £527m was allocated to services to support adults with care needs. That's equivalent to almost £1.5m a day.