Campaigning for fair pay

under supported, affecting their independence and quality of life.

Whilst there is a strong economic argument for investing in social care, the moral argument is clearly one of equal standing too.

Still Unfair To Care

For decades, the social care sector has been calling for greater investment, fair pay and a clear workforce strategy. In July 2021, Community Integrated Care sought to bolster the case for action by shifting the debate from one of moral subjectivity to objective fact.

Our charity partnered with one of the world’s leading experts in job analysis, Korn Ferry, a global consultancy specialising in organisational management. With an international presence, Korn Ferry has built its reputation on providing thorough, accurate and detailed job evaluations. Asking for their input meant that whatever the findings, they would be as scientifically objective as possible.

Their ‘Korn Ferry Hay Guide Chart – Profile Method’ is a widely used and accepted platform for role analysis globally. With the ability to compare pay databases of more than 20 million employees across countless sectors, it provides a platform to establish the relative value of roles. Using this data in our 2021 Unfair To Care report, we were able to provide the first-ever independent assessment of the front-line support worker role.

Consultants spent time in our services, analysing the day-to-day activities, processes and interactions of a support worker – a role which is replicated across the sector and forms the backbone of our profession.

This in-depth analysis suggests that, far from being > low skilled, the support worker role is clearly technically, emotionally and physically demanding and requires the application of a wide range of innate and developed technical skills. Support workers have abilities that exceed those in a number of publicly funded roles, such as police community officers, experienced teaching assistants and NHS healthcare assistants. However, when Korn Ferry looked at the salaries for these roles, it was revealed they were earning up to 41% more.

These findings initiated our charity’s focused campaign to achieve fair pay and objective pay benchmarks for all social care roles and a wider workforce strategy to make care a viable, respected and sustainable career.

Equal pay for equal roles

Using an average pay rate for an NHS band 3 healthcare assistant for comparison – a role that had been analysed by Korn Ferry and confirmed to be equivalent in skills, duties and responsibilities to an experienced social care worker – our research found that those in social care would need a 41% pay rise –more than £8,000 – to achieve parity with their NHS equivalents.

Shockingly, at current Government rates of investment, that means it will take 23 years – an entire generation – for social care support workers to receive equal pay for equal work.

Perhaps the only difference between the two roles, apart from the salary, is why support workers choose to stay in the sector. High-quality care is based on trust, mutual understanding and genuine fondness – these are the factors which make longstanding support work so rewarding for those delivering it and so life-enhancing for those receiving it. It is the nature of these relationships that keep social care workers in our sector, yet their loyalty to the people they support comes at a huge financial cost.

There is a common misconception that social care is the less-skilled counterpart of the NHS, with care workers implementing basic and administrative tasks, whilst the NHS delivers clinical and complex work. This perspective fails to recognise the growing demands of support delivered within social care, as well as the shift over decades that has increasingly seen challenging and technical clinical and behavioural support provided directly within our sector.

However, as the UK stood clapping on their doorsteps to show their support for front-line workers in the spring and summer of 2020, it was clear that a national appreciation for those in both health and social care had been awakened. And for the very first time, exclusive polling on public opinion recognises the shared value of social care and the NHS.

An Ipsos survey commissioned by our charity revealed the public’s perception of the value of social care, with 91% of people considering social care to be important to society and 90% acknowledging that support work is skilled or semi-skilled. As a sector quietly accustomed to second place status alongside the NHS, these views were startling.

A deepening but resolvable crisis

First published in 2021, Unfair to Care landed in a sector reeling from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, already struggling to cope with a staggering vacancy rate. The report became a national news story and clearly went some way in raising awareness amongst the general population about the value of social care.

But whilst the political rhetoric warmed up considerably, the only tangible change over the ensuing 12 months was that the situation in social care worsened. By December 2022, when the second instalment of Unfair to Care launched, vacancies had increased with one in 10 of all social care posts remaining unfilled.

The tens of thousands who left the sector did so to take up roles that easily paid more. Not just in the NHS but in supermarkets, distribution centres and restaurants, which all offer instant pay uplifts of up to 20% of a support worker’s salary.

This didn’t just lure away the staff who routinely dip into the sector and then move on but began to erode the ‘compassionate core' – those colleagues who had weathered the battle of the COVID-19 pandemic, only to be hit with a cost-of-living crisis that forced their hand financially.

As the Archbishop of Canterbury said in his New Year’s Day message, which focused on Britain’s broken social care system, ‘Why work as a carer when you might get paid more in less-demanding jobs?’ Many people are simply no longer able to accept a job that may be much more vocationally rewarding but offers significantly less pay than they could receive elsewhere.

Our research in Unfair To Care illustrates the extent of the current crisis and outlines how we can correct these injustices, stabilise our workforce and initiate a reset of the health and social care system that would deliver widespread social and economic benefits for many decades to come.

However, any integrated care model the Government advocates must firstly address the immediate pay disparity. Funding to stem the exodus of skilled workers from the sector is crucial to stabilise the market and from thereon in, essential workforce development has to take place to ensure social care is seen as a career of choice, rather than a last resort.

We recognise the need for fair pay across many other sectors and industries, the NHS included. Our research does not seek to diminish this progress, but instead advocates for parity and fairness. A sustainable NHS depends on a sustainable, high-functioning social care system.

Agenda for change

Community Integrated Care is clear that social care must undergo the thorough review and workforce analysis that delivered agenda for change within the NHS. Creating an NHS-style banding system for salaries would also map out for colleagues how their career and remuneration will progress as their skills and experience grow. Hopefully, this would permanently conclude the injustice of a support worker with five years of experience earning only a fraction more per hour than a new starter in the sector.

By building a registered and regulated workforce, we develop not only a social care sector that is rewarded and recognised, but one that can deliver support and care worthy of the world’s sixth richest economy.

A special thank you to our sector partners whose helpful insights, reflections and contributions feature in this year’s report.

We know that change is only possible with the support of stakeholders from across society. Community Integrated Care welcomes care providers and other likeminded organisations to share Unfair To Care with their own networks. If your organisation would like to take action, and call for vital change, you can do this by downloading campaign assets directly from www.UnfairToCare.co.uk/

Should your organisation wish to find out more or discuss opportunities to collaborate with Community Integrated Care, please contact us directly at UnfairToCare@c-i-c.co.uk CMM

Jim Kane is the Chief Executive of Community Integrated Care. Email: UnfairToCare@c-i-c.co.uk Twitter: @ComIntCare

What will it take for the Government to listen and to understand the true value of the care workforce? Visit www.caremanagementmatters.co.uk and share your feedback on the article.