Seizing the opportunity

The treatment of our social care workforce is a national scandal. England’s 1.6 million care workers suffer from endemic low pay and poor conditions, with almost half of care workers paid below the real living wage, and many earning below the legal minimum wage when travel time is taken into account. There are few opportunities for progression, with senior care workers earning just £3 per shift more than care workers. A third of the workforce have received no training for their role; three in ten care workers are on zero-hours contracts, nine times the average for the economy as a whole; and few care workers receive more than the legal minimum in terms of sick pay or pensions.

The government is currently legislating for a fair pay agreement in the sector. In this report, Fabian Society general secretary Joe Dromey and research manager Ben Cooper makes the case for an ambitious and fully funded fair pay agreement in order to improve pay and conditions, tackle the workforce crisis, and improve the quality of care.