A new report by the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust reveals how an inadequate national policy approach to social care pay and funding has trapped staff in a cycle of low wages and poor career prospects
The report reveals how an inadequate national policy approach to social care pay and funding has trapped staff in a cycle of low wages and poor career prospects.
Care workers in the independent sector earn on average £4.88 per hour less than the average UK wage of £15.88 per hour, and 1 in 10 social care roles is currently vacant. Care workers with significant experience are insufficiently rewarded, being paid only 8 pence more per hour than new starters.
Despite this, there have been no national policy attempts to improve pay in the sector in England, beyond increases to economy-wide minimum wages. Underfunding and problems regulating the sector mean that around 15% of low-paid social care staff in the UK are paid less than the national living wage.
Despite a 24% real-terms increase in the sector’s total wage bill from 2013/14 to 2022/23, driven largely by rising demand for care and increases to the national living wage, government spending on social care only increased by 17%. The previous government’s approach to leave wage setting to commissioners and employers in local areas has left the sector with entrenched low pay, leading the authors to conclude that a more comprehensive national approach, underpinned by extra funding and stronger enforcement, is needed.
Commenting on the report, Nina Hemmings, Researcher at the Nuffield Trust said:
“For too long, care workers have been undervalued and underpaid. A shockingly high number are still not even paid the legal bare minimum to travel to and care for the hundreds of thousands of people in need of social care. Social care is losing valuable staff to other sectors like retail and hospitality.
“The new government is right to develop proposals to address this and their suggested national approach is more likely to succeed than one that pushes the problem onto employers. Other countries have introduced bold pay reform for care workers. But the new government will need to pay careful attention to the design and implementation of any new policies to ensure pay reaches workers’ pockets and experienced staff are retained.”
Lucinda Allen, Senior Policy Officer at the Health Foundation said:
“There is growing consensus that the government needs to do more to improve wages for people working in social care. To help address the high vacancy rates in the sector and high levels of poverty among staff, care workers must be better rewarded for their vital work. Pay is not a silver bullet; improvements to wider employment conditions are also needed.
“Beyond boosting staff pay and conditions in social care, the new government must enact wide-ranging reforms to improve access to care, better support unpaid carers, and protect people against care costs. Successive governments have broken promises to fix the funding system for social care. Labour’s new government has an opportunity to finally reform social care, improve care worker pay and leave a lasting legacy for the future.”
