Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Accepted
Paragraph: 118
We heard repeatedly that an absolutely critical lever for stabilising the adult social care market...
Conclusion
We heard repeatedly that an absolutely critical lever for stabilising the adult social care market was tackling staff shortages and low retention. This would widen access to care and help to give unpaid carers a much-needed break. There is also the very real risk that the Government’s charging reforms do not immediately improve matters, for instance by drawing more people into the care system without having enough workers to deliver the care for which these people will now be eligible. We were repeatedly told that the solution is to increase wages. It is little consolation to hear from the Minister for Care and Mental Health that only a fifth of the workforce is on the National Minimum Wage when we know how many workers are leaving the sector for higher paid jobs in other sectors, and that the sector struggles to compete with the NHS. While increasing wages would come at a cost, we were encouraged to see this as an investment because of the connection between wages and quality of care, the extra spending in our economy by better paid care workers, and the cost savings of retaining staff over having to hire more expensive agency staff. The Government’s proposals for health and care workforce integration in the Joining up Care for People, Places and Populations White Paper are welcome, but they must include a requirement to work towards achieving parity of pay for comparable roles across the NHS and social care. The Government’s guidance for fair cost of care exercises should require councils and providers to move towards pay rates for care workers that align with the NHS and that reward more senior staff with meaningfully higher pay than entry level workers.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government welcomes the committee’s interest in shared care records and notes its Digital Health and Care Plan sets out that health and care professionals will have access to a comprehensive view of a person’s health record by April 2025.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
118
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
We are incredibly proud of all health and care staff and are grateful for their extraordinary commitment to their work. We welcome the spotlight that the pandemic shone on the heroic efforts of the adult social care workforce, and we hope this can continue to build to ensure that we as a society recognise and value adult social care in a similar way to the NHS. We are committed to supporting integrated care systems work with local authorities and care providers to improve the integration of health and care services, including enabling and promoting joined-up workforce planning. However, it is important to recognise that the social care sector and its structure is distinct from healthcare. The adult social care sector is primarily a private and independent sector with 17,700 separate employers. Most care workers are employed by private sector providers who set their pay, independent of central government. Private employers are best placed to make decisions on pay and reward, as they understand and respond to local market conditions for workforce supply and demand. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to manage their local care markets. The Care Act guidance states that they should assure themselves and have evidence that fee levels are appropriate to provide the agreed quality of care, enable providers to effectively support care users, and invest in staff development, innovation, and improvement. 30 Government response Conclusion 28 – the Shortage Occupation List Conclusion 28 - We welcome the addition of care workers, care assistants and domiciliary care workers to the Shortage Occupation List, acknowledging that these roles are in short supply within the UK resident labour market.
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