Page 11 - Unfair To Care 2024 - Who Cares Wins

SECTION 3: INTRODUCTION
AS WE ENTER THIS PIVOTAL ELECTION YEAR, WE PRESENT EXCLUSIVE POLLING DATA THAT SOCIAL CARE IS LIKELY TO INFLUENCE THE VOTING INTENTIONS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING 2.6 MILLION VOTERS WITH DIRECT EXPERIENCE OF DELIVERING OR DRAWING ON SOCIAL CARE SERVICES.
STAGE 1
IMMEDIATE ACTION:
An immediate uplift to
pay funded by government
so that all frontline care and support workers receive at least parity with the midpoint
of the hourly ‘basic pay’ level of NHS Band 3 staff
in 2024/25. One approach to achieving this could be through a ring-fenced government grant to Local Authorities to embed this level of pay in their contracts with care providers.
STAGE 2
WITHIN 12 MONTHS FOLLOWING THE GENERAL ELECTION:
Delivery of a new social care sector-specific minimum pay deal for the care workforce that is agreed upon and supported by funding nationally. This could be implemented within 12 months of the next general election
as a new national minimum wage level for frontline care and support workers, based on the principle of working towards ‘Total Pay’ parity with NHS equivalent staff.
Recognising the diversity and size of the social care sector, and the need for independent and objective action, we suggest that one option could be the Low Pay Commission leading this work, with a fresh mandate as the Fair Pay Commission. This could support a more timely resolution to these challenges
in a structurally complex sector.
STAGE 3
WITHIN THE LIFETIME OF THE NEXT PARLIAMENT:
A new national social care workforce plan is developed through a government-led care partnership forum, with technical and leadership support by Skills for Care.
This plan should have within
its scope the development of
a national social care pay- scale (with appropriate job evaluation, benchmarking, and bandings), a fully-funded training and qualifications career structure, and a five-year plan that identifies and tackles the workforce shortages in all roles, across all social care services, and at every level in the social care workforce.
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TO SUPPORT PARTIES IN ADDRESSING THESE CONCERNS, UNFAIR TO CARE PRESENTS A THREE-STAGE JOURNEY FOR GOVERNMENT TO INVEST IN FAIR PAY FOR FRONTLINE CARE AND SUPPORT WORKERS.