Priory announces £12 an hour minimum for all staff and further pay awards

• Priory will pay all colleagues a minimum of £12 per hour from 1 April 2024, which is equivalent to the Real Living Wage outside of London
• The announcement means someone working 37.5 hours per week will earn a minimum annual salary of £23,400
• Uplift benefits all healthcare assistants (HCAs), catering assistants and maintenance roles
• Further pay awards for chefs, addiction therapists, social workers and psychology assistants
• Priory colleagues can also enjoy various learning and development opportunities to support their career paths, including “Earn as you Learn” apprenticeships

Priory, the UK’s largest independent provider of mental health and adult social care services, has increased pay for all its permanent staff to £12 an hour from 1 April 2024.

This increase is in line with the Real Living Wage outside of London, equating to a minimum annual salary of £23,400 for someone working 37.5 hours per week.

The uplift benefits all healthcare assistants (HCAs), which is over 2,500 colleagues, with a 50p differential maintained between HCAs and senior healthcare assistants.

Average pay for catering assistants will rise by 14.4% to £12 and more than 60% of colleagues in maintenance roles will also be uplifted.

Priory has also announced a series of further pay awards to be implemented from 1 April 2024.

All permanent psychology assistants will be paid a minimum of £12.50 per hour, with pay for all social workers increasing by 7.5% and the remaining 40% in maintenance who currently earn more than £12 per hour receiving a 7.5% increase.

The minimum salary for chefs will be £25,000 and £30,000 for head chefs – average increases of 11.4% and 12.6% respectively – with an average 6.2% rise for addiction therapists, where minimum pay now ranges from £23,463 for a trainee to £40,000 for a senior therapist. 
Chefs and addition therapists already at the minimum levels in their pay structures will receive a 4% increase.

During 2023, Priory saw increasing stability across its sites, with new starters growing by 13% and leavers reducing by 11%, with the organisation also benefiting from investment in technology including electronic records and improved WiFi across all sites, which released time to care.

Rebekah Cresswell, Chief Executive at Priory, said: “I’m delighted to announce that all permanent Priory colleagues will now receive the minimum of £12 per hour.

“Our teams play a vital role in supporting thousands of people across the UK, often at extremely difficult and vulnerable times in their lives. 
“This increase, along with further pay awards across a number of roles, reflects our commitment to investing in the careers of our colleagues who continue to deliver critical services amid a difficult economic climate.”

She added: “At Priory, we always want to be investing in our people, which is why we’re not only increasing pay but ensuring colleagues have learning and development opportunities so they can upskill and develop their individual interests. As well as Healthcare colleagues, we are keen to support the national drive to acknowledge the social care workforce with a salary above the minimum wage.”

“Care and support workers make up 60% of our workforce and we are committed to the vision of ‘care as a career’, making sure there are formalised career structures and pathways in place to help these colleagues thrive.

“This includes our ‘Earn as you Learn’ apprenticeship programmes, which we have already invested £10 million in, and have committed a further £4 million for in 2024.”

Priory’s nationwide team cares for more than 28,000 people a year across a network of 290 facilities, supporting people to live their lives as fully and independently as possible and achieve their goals.

Find out more about careers at Priory or email [email protected].

ENDS

Contact: [email protected]

About Priory and MEDIAN

Priory is the UK’s leading independent provider of mental health and adult social care services. We treat more than 70 conditions including depression, anxiety, addictions, and eating disorders, as well as children’s mental health, across our nationwide network of sites. We also support autistic adults and adults with a learning disability, Prader-Willi Syndrome and brain injuries, as well as older people, within our specialist residential care and supported living facilities– helping as many people as possible to live their lives.

Priory is part of the MEDIAN Group, the leading European provider of high-quality mental health and rehabilitation services. The MEDIAN Group comprises: Priory in the UK with 290 facilities and 5,000 beds caring for 28,000 people, MEDIAN in Germany with 120 facilities and 20,000 beds caring for around 250,000 patients, and Hestia in Spain with 15 facilities and 2,100 beds caring for 11,000 people in Spain, with more than 29,000 employees across the group.