Cornerstone’s latest increase will see Healthcare Assistants earn a minimum of £10.20 per hour with Nurse’s hourly rate now starting from £20.20. The nurse increase is in addition to the care providers recently announced ‘Golden Career’ bonus scheme which sees their nurses able to earn an annual, uncapped performance bonus.

The company, which cares for people with challenging behaviours associated with complex neurological and mental health needs, employs over 350 people across its three services – South Africa Lodge and Kitnocks House in Hampshire and Marula Lodge in Surrey.

“As we start to return to a bit of normality in our day to day lives following COVID, our staff continue to work with the additional challenges this virus has created in the healthcare sector for near on two years. Our staff deserve more, simple as that.” said Cornerstone CEO, Johann van Zyl.

“The recent wave of the Omicron variant has once again shown our staff to be the stars that they are. Never more so than over the very busy Christmas and New Year period where many staff sacrificed time with their own loved ones to ensure our residents had the care and support, they deserved at that special time”.

Since 2018 Cornerstone Healthcare Group have increased the salaries of their frontline, keyworkers by over 19% by way of regular pay reviews meaning that the company are continually the highest payers in their areas. They uniquely also pay for their staff’s breaks, meaning that staff are paid for every minute they are on shift.

Johann van Zyl finished by saying, “The staffing crisis in healthcare is one that has made national news. Firstly, impacted by Brexit, then COVID and now the Government’s mandatory requirement that any social care staff be double vaccinated has led to an estimated 150,000 live vacancies in the sector. Social care is already a hugely fulfilling career, we must now make it a financially rewarding one to encourage new people to the sector. This is something that we believe we are doing at Cornerstone.”

Cornerstone’s fourth service ‘Cale View’ in Wincanton, Somerset is due to open at the end of the year with a fifth to open in Bristol in 2023.