Why the Living Wage is so important

Chief Executive David Bradley explains why the Living Wage is so important and how it links to our South London Listens programme.

Here at South London and Maudsley we are proud to be a Living Wage Employer and we believe it’s the right thing to do. Our Trust now pays all staff the real Living Wage, which is higher than the minimum wage set by the government. All our London-based employees earn the London Living Wage, an independently calculated rate that ensures workers can meet the capital’s cost of living. We have been a Living Wage Employer since February 2020.

Our staff are our greatest asset and we know that staff who feel supported at work provide the best care for our patients and the people who use our services. We want our staff to be able to support themselves and their families, and afford the costs of living in London. Rates of poverty are high in the capital and we know that this has an impact in our local communities. The Covid-19 pandemic has been most devastating for those who were already struggling to make ends meet. This is why the Living Wage is more important than ever.

Of course, worries about job security and being able to pay the bills has a negative impact on mental health. While being in a rewarding, stable job can be good for your mental health, low-paid or unstable work can have the opposite effect. As a leading NHS mental health trust, the mental health and wellbeing of our local communities is our highest priority.

Our concerns about the pandemic’s impact on people’s mental health led us to launch South London Listens, a unique programme in partnership with local statutory, voluntary and community organisations. Through the South London Listens programme, over 6,000 people in South London told us what mattered to them and we have committed to actions that will help prevent a mental ill-health crisis due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

People in our local communities said how important the Living Wage was to them. We heard about how work and wages had been impacted by the pandemic and economic difficulties the country was facing - following the most significant decline in GDP since the 1920s. We heard from people in minimum wage jobs on how their hours had been cut leaving them unable to provide for their families. Our survey found that one-in-three people have been affected by job insecurity (38 percent) and a similar proportion are struggling to pay the bills (34 percent).

At South London and Maudsley, this situation has made us even more convinced about how crucial the Living Wage is. “Work and wages” forms one of the four priorities of South London Listens. Our local community have asked us to champion the Living Wage in the health sector more widely which we will continue to be strong advocates for.

We want to improve the working lives of local people. So, we will also be launching a pilot of the Work Well advice line – an employment support line for people with mental health problems that was initially developed as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. And we will work closely with community leaders to develop a new approach to careers days that opens up opportunities for people currently under-represented in the mental health and wider workforce.

South London Listens is about actions we can deliver in partnership to make life better for our local communities. The Living Wage is an important step - there are many other priorities within our action plan as we work together to build community resilience and improve the mental health of people across South London. These include supporting hundreds of people to become Mental Health Champions, resourcing parent groups to offer peer-to-peer support, and working with our partners to develop social isolation and digital inclusion strategies

We are excited about what we have achieved and what more we can do. We are also really happy that NHS Charities Together is supporting us in this journey. They have pledged more than ￡350,000 to help us invest in the wellbeing of our local communities and this will make a huge difference.