The National Care Forum (NCF), the association for not-for-profit care providers, welcomes the research by member Community Integrated Care providing an essential independent perspective on the complex, skilled and demanding roles within social care.
The Unfair to Care report has demonstrated that carers get an unjust deal when compared to other publicly funded roles and that many frontline social care workers would be paid 39% more - nearly £7000 per year - in equivalent positions within the NHS, local authorities and other public funded industries,
Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of the NCF said: “Unfair to Care is hard hitting – and rightly so. It is hard to believe that in 2021 we have workers who are highly skilled, doing complex work that enables people to live the life they want and yet being paid at minimum wage. If we have learned anything in the last year, surely it is how valuable and how precious it is to be a part of your community and have control of your life. That is what good quality care work delivers, day in and day out, for some of the most vulnerable members of society. Yet somehow, whether by design or neglect, we have sleep walked into a position where staff are undervalued and underpaid. We must take action now to intervene in the very real workforce crisis that is happening in hundreds and thousands of organisations up and down the country.”
“The Korn Ferry research is extremely important. It provides an independent perspective on care worker roles, and enables them to be externally evaluated and compared with other public sector roles. In doing so, it brings to light what all within the sector understand, that care work should be viewed as a comparable role to that of colleagues within health and other public sector services. This level of responsibility, requiring the care worker to respond to constantly changing needs and complexity of tasks shows the skills, resilience and personal qualities needed in these roles. It also highlights how care roles require ongoing upskilling through training and high levels of knowledge to understand how best to offer care and support that changes lives.”
The reality of government neglect of the social care workforce for years is being felt right now. NCF carried out research with members to find out how their workforce is changing in light of the opening up of the economy.
Vic Rayner said: “Members have told us loud and clear that they are experiencing an incredibly challenging time in recruiting and retaining staff – and they only see this getting harder in the coming months. In our survey, nearly 60% said they have seen the rate of exit increase since April 2021. Over 40% of staff who leave, are leaving the sector altogether which represents a higher trend than previous national statistics. They are predominantly heading to the health sector where they can receive higher wages and better terms and conditions. They are also leaving to join hospitality and retail and they are stating that stress and burnout are at the top of the list for reasons to leave, with pay and terms and conditions coming not far behind. At the same time, it is harder to recruit replacements, with particular issues in rural areas.”
"We need the government to act rapidly on the evidence presented by Community Integrated Care, which rightly calls for an immediate increase to care workers’ pay, a full-scale independent evaluation of roles and a detailed workforce strategy to ensure social care is a viable, respected and sustainable career."
