Every day thousands of social care and support workers undertake complex delegated nursing tasks. They work to understand and tackle the causes of distressed behaviour. They support people to make choices and gain control over their life. They maintain family relationships, help with friendships, support with employment and personal care. They are skilled, professional workers. 

In the past three years a typical sales assistant has gone from earning 13 pence per hour less than a care and support worker to 21p more. This shift is having a huge impact on people's career choices.

Amidst the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, many skilled care and support workers are moving to better paid roles elsewhere. This has resulted in 165,000 job vacancies across social care, and hundreds of thousands of people needing care but not receiving it. To say nothing of the resulting NHS bed blocking.

 

 

Social care providers are restricted in increasing pay further by tough limits on local authority budgets. Funding for social care is ultimately driven by central government. 

Care and support workers are passionate about care and dedicated to the people they support but try bringing your family up on minimum wage, knowing you could earn a pound an hour more in retail or hospitality, starting tomorrow. Try telling your children they can’t have such-and-such because you’ve chosen to earn less than you could. Then try telling them that you can’t be home for them, again, because there’s a staffing crisis and the person you support simply cannot be left alone.

Without a social care workforce, both the care sector and the health sector cease to function. Right now, government must take workforce issues in social care seriously.

To reverse this issue, Dimensions’ petition calls on the public and social care sector to unite in a call for government to benchmark and fund minimum care worker pay at NHS Band 3, currently £11.67 - £12.45 per hour outside of London. This would set care and support workers alongside, for example, therapy assistants, pharmacy assistants, administrative workers and clerical staff. This will allow care and support workers to earn a wage aligned with their skills and responsibilities, and encourage a much-needed pool of talented, dedicated workers into these vital careers. 

 

 

Thank you for now adding your support to this nationally critical issue.