Page 56 - Unfair To Care 2024 - Who Cares Wins

HOW MUCH WOULD INVESTING IN FAIR PAY FOR FRONTLINE CARE AND SUPPORT WORKERS COST THE COUNTRY?
Reducing the costs of recruitment from dealing with high staff turnover could save up to
£1.4BN
Reducing delayed transfers of care from hospital, because more care places would be available in a fully-staffed care system, could save the NHS up to
£1.7BN
SECTION 7: THE SOCIAL CARE TRIPLE WIN
THE NET COST OF BETTER PAY
In 2023, the TUC estimated in it’s ‘Care Minimum Wage’ publication – which explored the economic viability and impact of improving care worker pay – that creating a £15 per hour minimum wage for care and support workers would benefit 547,000 care workers at a gross cost of £5.9 billion. However, this gross cost would be massively offset by significant quantifiable savings elsewhere in the system:
There could also be wider savings that are more difficult to quantify, including:
Reduced use of expensive agency workers by care providers
Reductions in spend on Universal Credit claimed by care workers
Reductions in the cost of Carer’s Allowance (currently £3.5bn per year) as fewer people need to become unpaid carers
AN ACHIEVABLE AND AFFORDABLE STEP TO TAKE
Given this combination of significant savings to care providers and to the NHS, and wider savings and added economic value to the country, it is reasonable to conclude that the net cost to the country of fair pay for care and support workers is substantially lower than the gross cost.
It is an achievable and financially affordable step to take. And one that would have widespread benefits for people and organisations across the health and social care system.
Maximising the value of people returning to work full time and leaving the benefit system (estimated in 2017 to be at least £35,100 per person)62
Increases in economic growth and income tax payments
Increased reach and value of social care, through investment, greater capacity, and focus on innovation and social impact
SCOTLAND
The Scottish government has introduced a minimum wage for social care workers. This was £10.90 per hour in 2023 and will rise to £12.00 in April 2024. Despite having several characteristics that might reflect an entry point to greater professionalisation of its social care workforce – including registration and the minimum wage – the Scottish social care system still faces real recruitment and retention challenges.
In July 2023, the Coalition of Care & Support Providers in Scotland reported that their average workforce turnover rate was 25%, an increase of 5.5% in the year prior. This demonstrates that workforce stability cannot be achieved through partial concessions to fair
pay but can only be realised through parity between the social care sector and its parallel sectors – particularly, the NHS.
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62. ‘Movement into employment: return on investment tool’, Public Health England, October 2017