Bluebird Care North Hampshire and West Berkshire has announced its biggest annual pay rise for a second year. 

It comes into effect on March 21 and includes a 10 per cent increase for their home care team, giving them more support during the cost of living crisis.

Care assistants will now earn between £12 and £13.20 per hour, or up to £31,449 a year for the most experienced carers.

Director Phil Miles said: “This year, we are delighted to be able to announce the biggest annual pay increase in our 15 years of trading for our domiciliary care teams. At the same time we have been increasing pay for office and live-in care staff during the year through individual reviews. 

“This has been made possible by the huge amount of hard work by everyone in the company to continue to deliver the very highest standards of care and support to our customers in the most challenging of circumstances. This pay increase, combined with our unique salaried employment terms, will see our full-time senior care assistants earn over £31,000 per annum for the first time which we feel rewards them appropriately for the outstanding job they do.” 

The company is already known for its substantial annual pay rises, as last year they announced increases of up to eight per cent. They also pay a travel time rate of £10.44, as well as mileage, to support staff travelling to and from people’s homes. 

Care assistant Sarah said: “It's great that Bluebird Care look after their team. Feeling valued is extremely important to me and although you don’t do this job for the money, we all have bills to pay at the end of the day - this is a good pay rise which will go a long way.”