New Report Calls for Urgent Action to Reduce Social Care Workers Pay Gap
‘Social care is the backbone of society. At its best, it is the skilled sector that enables people to lead full and independent lives in the heart of their communities.’
A new report entitled ‘Unfair To Care 2022’ has revealed that social care workers are undervalued by more than £8,000 compared to their exact equivalents in the NHS and that at current rates it will take more than 23 years to arrive at equal pay.’ The report warns that without urgent action, this crisis is set to escalate for more than a generation.
The 2022 edition of Unfair to Care, commissioned by NCF member, Community Integrated Care, in partnership with Korn Ferry, reveals that social care support workers would need a 41% pay rise – equalling £8,036 – to have parity with their direct equivalents within the NHS, Band 3 Healthcare Assistants. It would take 23 years for current rates of uplift to deliver parity with the NHS. The report demonstrates that modern frontline social care requires complex technical and emotional skills, to effectively support people who commonly have complex medical and behavioural needs, proving that social care is significantly undervalued.
Commenting on the report Professor Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of the National Care Forum – the leading association for not for profit care and support organisations said:
“This is a really valuable report, building on the benchmarking work delivered last year by Community Integrated Care. It brings together insights from across the care and support sector which highlight, yet again, the level of skill needed to be a care and support worker and just how demanding it is to provide high quality, person centred care and support.
Unfair To Care also offers some very powerful stories from care and support workers, highlighting how difficult it is to remain in a job they love because of the current low levels of pay and the rising cost of living. The public perception research by Ipsos shows that the public believe in the importance of our social care workforce to society and all the evidence in this report shows the urgency of investing in that workforce now, addressing the current pay disparities and longer-term planning for the future of this essential workforce.”
The full report can be found at www.unfairtocare.co.uk