From ambition to reality: national policy options to improve care worker pay in England
Key points
- Low pay in social care contributes to staffing problems, worker poverty and reduced care quality. With 77% of the public believing care workers are underpaid, there's strong support for wage increases. And the new government has announced its ambition of a ‘fair pay agreement’ for social care, setting out minimum pay and terms and conditions.
- In this report, we set out five policy options that could form part of the government’s approach to social care pay:
- better enforcement of economy-wide, statutory minimum wages
- uplifts to economy-wide, statutory minimum wages
- bonus payments
- a sector-specific minimum wage for social care, set above the National Living Wage
- a national sector pay scale, similar to Agenda for Change in the NHS.
- These proposals have a mix of aims, including improving recruitment and retention and ensuring parity with the NHS, and could be introduced in combination. The right approach ultimately depends on the government’s ambition, policy aims and spending priorities.
- We draw on learning from Scotland, Wales, Australia, France and New Zealand, where these pay policies have been introduced in social care, showing that progress is possible with political will.
National government plays a key role in shaping pay in social care, but previously there has been no long-term policy to improve wages in the sector, beyond increasing the economy-wide National Living Wage. Insufficient government funding and oversight, as well as poor commissioning and employment practices, contribute to illegal underpayment of wages in social care.
A more targeted government approach to pay is essential, such as a sector-specific minimum wage and pay scale for social care. Whichever approach the government chooses, it must come with additional funding and stronger enforcement.
Increasing wages alone won't solve the workforce crisis in social care; wider reforms are also needed. If the government gets this right, there are opportunities to improve the lives of thousands of care workers and the quality of people’s care.