Waiting for government action: What next for the social care workforce?
People working in social care have been waiting for meaningful reforms for a long time, and they were disappointed with the lack of attention to social care in both the Labour Party’s and the Conservative Party’s general election manifestos. Since the elections, employers and workers alike have been looking forward to the government revealing the details of the Employment Rights Bill and especially the Fair Pay Agreement, promised to be rolled out first in the social care sector. However, stakeholders are becoming increasingly disappointed as the new Labour government has cancelled some previously agreed policy reforms, but upheld the restrictions on migrant care workers bringing family members to the UK.
While waiting for government action, social care employers are trying to mitigate the recruitment and retention challenges, and a coalition of stakeholders, led by Skills for Care, have proposed a strategy for the social care workforce. However, there is a consensus that long-standing workforce challenges can only be addressed through government action and increased state funding. The workforce strategy provides a great opportunity for the new Government to engage with the social care sector, rebuild trust and start the much needed reforms.
Ready for change
Social care stakeholders sent a letter to Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 2nd August. The letter had more than thirty signatories, including organisations representing people who draw on social care, social care employers and arm’s length bodies, such as the Digital Care Hub. It was prompted by the new government’s two decisions. First, they cancelled the previous Conservative government’s plan to make the financial eligibility criteria for publicly funded social care more generous, and introduce a cap on the lifetime costs of personal care that people drawing on care have to pay. Secondly, they withdrew the plan to establish the Adult Social Care Training and Development Fund that would have covered the costs of skills training or the revalidation of existing qualifications of care workers (up to £2,035).
Withdrawing additional funding from workforce training was the less significant of the two decisions, but it was an unexpected ‘bitter pill’, because it was made without consulting employers and trade unions and at a time when the government recognised the pay demands of teachers and junior doctors. It is also important to remember that a sense of frustration with the national government’s inaction has been growing among social care employers, commissioners and care workers’ trade unions for a long time. When I attended Care England’s annual conference in March 2024, it was clear that employers and commissioners were ready for change. Beverly Tarka, the President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), received a round of applause when she called on the (then Conservative) government to make a commitment to multi-year funding to local authorities to enable them to make longer-term local plans for social care services.
While the new government has not committed to such funding, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has confirmed that they support the policy reform that restricts the ability of migrant care workers to bring dependants to the UK. The restriction, introduced in April 2023, was not welcomed by social care employers who gathered at the Care England conference: when Beverly Tarka criticised the decision and thanked migrant workers for their hard work, she received a second, even louder round of applause.
Another conference speaker, Martin Green, the Chief Executive of Care England, referred to “government inaction” in reforming social care in England, and encouraged employers to not wait for government action but be proactive in tackling workforce pressures. James Allen, the CEO of the National Care Group, described his organisation’s efforts to build a stable workforce without raising wages, on a shoestring, arguing that “government funding is fundamental, but talking about it is a bit pointless”. Their workforce innovations were focused on improving non-pay aspects of care workers’ job quality, for example, the National Care Group has introduced an online Employee Assistance Programme and encouraged staff to form peer-support groups. In these groups staff can discuss their shared experience and give informal advice to one another, for example, on going through the menopause or living with a violent partner. The management expected these initiatives to contribute to building trust between members of staff, and ultimately, strengthen employees’ commitment to the organisation. The management also set up a suggestion box where staff can post ideas for improvements, creating a new channel for employees to express their opinions in a way that benefits the organisation.
These initiatives can improve job quality and staff retention, but they also demonstrate the limitations of what individual employers can do themselves. The long-term workforce strategy, the first of its kind since 2009, goes beyond these organisational policies. To put it simply, the strategy provides focused recommendations for the government to help recruit and retain British workers in social care. In particular, it outlines three clear options, based on independent modelling, for raising care worker pay and improving terms and conditions of employment. These options may not be compatible with Labour’s plans for a Fair Pay Agreement, promised to be rolled out first in the social care sector, but they provide a starting point for starting negotiations with trade unions and employers immediately.
As the signatories of the open letter argued, stakeholders have done what they could: they have gathered the evidence, analysed the data and developed policy options. It is time for the government to take action building on the workforce strategy handed to them, or to outline its own vision and the timeframe for introducing long overdue reforms.
About the author
As part of the research group that focuses on the changing social care workforce in the UK, Erika is involved in projects exploring the regulation and organisation of paid care work, care worker recruitment and conditions, and efforts to improve job and service quality in care.