Free Pay Benchmarking Data For Providers In Adult Social Care, Take Part In Survey
For many employers in the adult social care sector, rising operating costs are compounding existing pressures posed by limited local authority funding and staff shortages. A new survey being undertaken by independent analysts at Incomes Data Research (IDR) looks at the labour market pressures currently faced by providers. It also aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of pay and conditions for staff working in the adult social care sector in England, covering some 26 roles across residential and domiciliary care, nursing and allied health professions and community care.
The survey is being undertaken on behalf of the trade union UNISON as part of work to underpin its campaign for a National Care Service in England: a nationally recognised institution that would bring about consistent standards of care for older and disabled people, and consistent terms and conditions for the workforce. Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health Secretary, has also expressed his intention to explore the prospect of implementing such a service with the ultimate long-term aim of providing free care at the point of use. ‘With a General Election due before the end of next year and the prospect of a new administration, this survey offers providers across the adult social care sector in England a real opportunity to feed into proposals that could start taking shape, at least in terms of uniform care standards and pay and conditions, in the foreseeable future,’ says Katherine Heffernan, Principal Researcher at IDR.
As a ‘thank you’ for taking part, all respondents to the survey will receive a free detailed summary report with an overview of pay and benefits provision in the sector, as well as the steps providers have taken to address recruitment and retention difficulties. ‘None of the pay data that individual respondents provide will be shared with UNISON or directly linked to them in the final report – we will just be reporting aggregate results such as median and average pay rates across the wider sample,’ Heffernan explains. ‘The survey looks quite long at first sight given the number of jobs we are benchmarking but participants can easily skip over any questions that aren’t relevant to their setting. My colleagues and I are also very happy to talk through survey questions in person if preferred – our contact details are in the survey.’
The survey, which is open throughout September, can be accessed here .
