Shortage of critical staff

Pay Fair For Social Care

Support worker pay does not reflect the skilled, complex, and responsible work they do. Inadequate funding for providers, particularly in the nonprofit sector, has meant that the sector has been beset by low pay.

The sector is under pressure, with many skilled care and support workers moving to better paid roles elsewhere. The latest data from Skills for Care shows there are 152,000 job vacancies across social care.

Over the last 18 months, international recruitment has helped to reduce vacancies in the care sector. Skills for Care data shows that without sponsored workers, filled posts would have declined further. This would have left even more people without the care they need.

Currently, four in ten social care workers earn less than the real living wage. Between 2013 and 2020, the average pay for a sales assistant increased from 13p less than a care worker to 21p more. Non-profit social care providers are restricted in increasing pay by tough limits on local authority budgets. Many skilled social care workers often have no choice but to leave the workforce for better paid roles elsewhere. (Sources: IPPR, Skills for Care)

It’s vital that we invest in the people who work in social care so they are paid in line with their skills and experience and there is a more resilient labour market. This ensures continuity of care for the people we support so they know the person who is coming into their home and the support worker knows them, their ways to communicate, what they enjoy doing and they don’t have to suffer a high turnover of staff.

We aren’t meeting needs

Almost 170,000 hours a week of home care could not be delivered because of a shortage of care workers during the first three months of 2022 – a seven-fold increase in a year.

The Migration Advisory Committee told us in May 22 that demand for labour in the sector is outpacing population growth: social care employs around 2% of the working-age population today and may need to employ 4% to fulfil demand by 2033.

The knock on effect

Survey findings from ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Services) show that more than half a million people are now waiting for an adult social care assessment, for care or a direct payment to begin or for a review of their care.

Without a social care workforce, both the care sector and the health sector cease to function. Right now, government must take workforce issues in social care seriously.