Page 6 - Unfair To Care 2024 - Who Cares Wins

UNITED IN SUPPORT
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PHIL HOPE, CO-CHAIR, FSCC
“Community Integrated Care’s valuable report makes clear, low pay is a major driver of the shortages and high turnover of social care staff that are so damaging to those who provide and draw on care. It also highlights the unnecessary costs and inefficiencies in health and social care services that unfair care creates and how that undermines our economy and productivity.
The report’s unique independent evaluation of the role
of a frontline care and support worker shows that care pay is much too low when compared to workers in other sectors on similar wages, particularly their counterparts in the NHS where there is a huge wage gap of 36%. Care is a very rewarding job that is very unfairly rewarded.
But the good news in the report is that government investment in fair pay for care workers would bring real returns to the country – not just through better and fairer care, but in substantial financial savings, and economic growth. Fair pay is not a cost but an investment that
has multiple social, financial and economic benefits.
The Future Social Care Coalition strongly supports Community Integrated Care’s calls for an immediate pay rise for all frontline care and support workers as a first step towards achieving parity pay with the NHS. We want to see a Social Care People Plan that properly values and rewards care workers as part of a comprehensive care workforce strategy to tackle the high shortage and turnover of care staff.
The report shows there is strong and widespread public, political and sector support for fair pay. It is a real economic opportunity not just a moral imperative. As the 2024 General Election approaches we call on all political parties to make a commitment to better social care for those in need, starting with fair pay for those who provide it.”
OONAGH SMYTH, CEO, SKILLS FOR CARE
“Some of the events from 11 years ago – the birth of Prince George, the death of Nelson Mandela and the Snowden leaks – feel like very recent history.
In another 11 years from now, we expect to need 440,000 more people working in adult social care. That’s 25% more than we had in 2022/23, so getting there will
be a challenge, even with a fair wind behind us.
But right now it’s far from plain sailing. While our data shows more filled posts and fewer vacancies over the past couple of years, the adult social care workforce is still a leaky bucket. 390,000 people left their jobs in 2022/23 – with around a third of them leaving the sector altogether. We need to ensure that such vital people feel valued and want to stay.
With those challenges in mind, it’s good to see
that this report not only recognises the need for a workforce strategy for adult social care – but also the work by Skills for Care, and a wide range of partners from across the sector, to make one a reality.
The strategy we’re developing will provide the blueprint for the workforce we need to build now and for the future.”