In the midst of a hectic day in the Moray Council chamber a victory was being celebrated by a councillor who has championed the cause of social care workers.
Elgin City North councillor Patsy Gowans has regularly raised issues surrounding pay and conditions for low-paid care workers regardless if they are employed by Moray Council or external organisations.
Now Councillor Gowans is celebrating after the Leader of Moray Council, Stewart Cree, agreed the importance of having a living wage rolled out to more people in Moray.
The exchange came during consideration of an annual report prepared by the Chief Social Work Officer for the local authority.
Councillor Gowans said: “As a former care worker I know very well the pressures and responsibilities that come with these roles, which are frequently involve long hours and low pay.
“These care sector workers need to be much more valued, with pay and conditions that properly reflect the complex and challenging work that they do.
“We need to have the confidence that we can achieve our national priorities and outcomes and for us to be able to do that we need to have a valued and a sustainable workforce and that has to begin with pay.
“Choice and control is at the heart of health and social care integration and we need our care workers to be able to achieve that, otherwise there is no real choice for service users.
“I am pleased that the Scottish Government is working on ways of extending the living wage and I will continue raising this issue to ensure the Council is doing the same in the shortest possible time.”