Stoke-on-Trent home care staff pay and conditions 'should be improved'
Pay and conditions of home care workers in Stoke-on-Trent should be improved, a city council report has recommended.
The report, which comes after an 8,000-strong petition calling for a review, said home care providers struggled to attract and retain staff.
It said people were generally happy with Stoke's service but said workforce growth was not meeting demand.
Improved pay, training and a move away from zero-hours contracts were among 36 recommendations made.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council said the median pay for a home care worker in the the city was £7 an hour.
"When the group met with the care workers, the reoccurring messages were that of low pay: zero-hour contracts, insufficient travel time, no mileage payments or time off for training," the report said.
It said it was "amazed" there was just one applicant for every five care worker vacancies.
The North Staffordshire Pensioners' Convention petition was handed to the city council after Janet Smallwood raised concerns about her elderly aunt's care plan.
Bagh Ali, chairman of the council's adults and neighbourhood overview and scrutiny committee, said: "The report highlighted a number of areas where we can seek to make improvements which will help us to raise satisfaction levels, and these will be investigated further."
The committee will consider the findings on 14 May.