UK | Care England has responded to a damning Health Foundation report, "Poverty, pay and the case for change in social care."
Care England, the leading representative body for independent adult social care providers, has responded to the Health Foundation’s new report “Poverty, pay and the case for change in social care” with a call for urgent and transformative government action to address the scandal of in-work poverty among care workers.
The Health Foundation’s analysis reveals that one in five residential care workers lives in poverty, and over in 10 are food insecure. Perhaps most shockingly, one in 10 children of care workers go without essentials such as a warm winter coat. The report also highlights deep inequalities: 35 percent of care workers born outside the UK are in poverty, compared to just 13 percent of those born in the UK.
“It is unconscionable that the very people entrusted with looking after our most vulnerable citizens are themselves struggling to heat their homes, feed their children, or buy basic necessities. Poverty pay is not just a workforce issue: it is a moral failure,” said Professor Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England.
The report estimates that raising the wage floor in line with NHS Agenda for Change Band 3 would lift incomes for care workers by an average of 6.6 percent, and nearly 15 percent for those in the poorest households. Yet it warns that without extra funding, such changes could jeopardise services.
“The Fair Pay Agreement is a step in the right direction, but it will be meaningless unless backed by substantial, ringfenced funding. Providers cannot deliver better wages in a chronically underfunded system. Government must rise to this challenge, not by asking more of care providers, but by giving them the tools to deliver fair pay and secure conditions and to stop applying tax increases such as the national insurance increase on employers, hindering their ability to pay their staff more.”
Care England supports the introduction of a sector-specific minimum wage, better sick pay, pensions, and more secure contracts. However, it stresses that wage uplifts must not come at the cost of reduced care packages or workforce reductions.
“We need a whole-system reset. If ministers are serious about reducing poverty and delivering economic growth, they must start by valuing and adequately funding social care. We back the report’s call for cross-government action on poverty that delivers proper investment, a sustainable workforce strategy, and a firm commitment to eradicating poverty from the profession.”
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