New death payments and sick pay boost for care workers announced by Scottish Government health secretary Jeane Freeman
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Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said contractual arrangements for many care workers are 'not acceptable'.
At today's Scottish Government coronavrius briefing the she confirmed a financial boost for all care workers, which had been trailed earlier.
Under the mew arrangements all families of care workers who die in the pandemic will receive a £60,000 payment if they have no death-in-service cover as part of their existing contract arrangements.
A similar death in service payment had already been announced for NHS workers last month.
Ms Freeman also confirmed an improvement in sick pay arrangements for any care workers who contract coronavirus.
"It is not acceptable for any social care workers to be faced with a situation of testing positive and knowing their weekly income will reduce to only the level of statutory sick pay."
She said the Scottish Government would now ensure care workers who do fall sick receive more than the statutory sick pay level of £95.86 a week.
Ms Freeman also defended the government over questions about whether the right thing had been done in March to send hospitalised patients back into care homes.
"She said that, at the time, on the basis of advice from scientific advisers, the country was facing a worst case scenario of 80 per cent of the population of the UK becoming infected with Covid-19 and four per cent of that total requiring hospital treatment.
She said efforts were "rightly" focussed at that time on ensuring the NHS was able to cope with large numbers of cases expected.
She also said that all patients being moved from hospital to other settings were "clinically well" before they were discharged.
"As the First Minister has said, I too, had I known everything I now know, may have made different decisions," she added.
She refused to be drawn on questions about whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson's aide Dominic Cummings should resign after accusations that he broke lockdown rules.
She said that was "entirely a matter" for the UK government, though she also said she had concerns that the situation in "other parts of the UK" could confuse the message about what is required of them.
Related article: No new confirmed coronavirus cases in Highlands
