The pandemic demonstrated just how much we rely on our nation’s 1.52m care workers and the risks they take to do their job. But care workers aren’t given the rate of pay that they deserve to fulfil their role to the people they support and to society.
Autism at Kingwood initiated #BetterPay4SocialCare, bringing on board over social care organisations, which represented over 400 non-profit social care providers.
We created a petition, calling on Government to increase funding to adult social care, specifically to ensure support workers received better pay.
Over 10,000 people signed the petition, which we delivered to HM Treasury, ahead of the November 2021 budget.
We urged the government to ensure frontline support workers received a minimum of the Real Living Wage – then £9.50 per hour (outside London). Rishi Sunak in his budget did indeed increase the National Living Wage to £9.50, but by then the Real Living Wage had increased to £9.90 per hour.
Autism at Kingwood joined the Future Social Care Coalition (FSCC), a powerhouse of former Health Ministers and influential experts. We contributed to the development of the Social Care People Plan, calling on social care reform: parity of esteem with the HNS – meaning parity in pay (NHS workers in similar roles receive more pay), training, funding and development. and starting with increased pay.
Philippa Stannard and Kate Allen from Kingwood attended a Conservative Party Conference fringe meeting in November 2021, meeting with Gillian Keegan MP, the then minister for Care and Mental Health, where we argued our case for increased funding.
In 2022, Kingwood awarded a pay increase of 7% pay increase to our frontline support workers, even though local authorities with which we work only provided us with an increase of funding of between 3-6%. In 2023, our pay increases were higher, and again, local authorities failed to provide uplifts to match this.
Left behind salaries in the social care has meant that talented support workers are leaving the sector, creating a social care staffing crises. Social Care providers are then forced to use expensive agency workers – clearly a false economy.
Autism at Kingwood continues to negotiate better rates with local authorities and to call on Government to increase funding to local authorities to pass on to social care providers, so we can pay our care workers what they deserve.
Email your MP now and ask them to support increased funding for better frontline pay. Use this template, but you can personalise it to tell your story – heartfelt emails work best. Explain why social care workers deserve better. Click this link to find out who your MP is and their email address.
Read and share our stories featuring our front-line care workers – Dina Adam Beth They love their job but struggle on their pay.
Poem by a social care worker ‘I’m a Key Worker Now’
October 2021 The King’s Fund The value of investing in social care
October 2021 NHS Adult Social Care Activity and Finance Report, England – 2020-21
July 2021 Social Care Leaders vision for a workforce strategy
July 2021 #BetterPay4SocialCare member Community Integrated Care report on pay – Unfair to Care
18 March 2021. Parliamentary debate on ‘The Future of Social Care’ Watch here.
February 2021. The Government produced a long-awaited White Paper on NHS and Social Care Reform, with little mention of social care. Read here.
February 2021. Open University ‘The Path Forward for Social Care’ ‘Unsurprisingly, many respondents (40%) noted the importance of a sustainable funding settlement for social care from central government, without which most experts agree the sector’s systemic problems will remain unresolved.’
January 2021. The Government respond to the All Party Health and Social Care Committee report of October 2020. Read here.
October 2020. The cross party Health & Social Care Committee report: ‘Social care: funding and workforce‘, calculated that the Government needs to invest £7.9bn into social care, and urges the Government to ensure care workers are paid the real living wage.
October 2020. Skills for Care report: The State of the Adult Social Care Sector. Read here.
2020 The Health Foundation – The Social Care Funding Gap
2020. Social Care Institute for Excellence: Recommendations for the Future of Social Care Reform
2019/2020. CQC (Care Quality Commission) report: The State of Health Care and Adult Social Care in England
2020. Local Government Association: Adult Social Care – Seven Principles for Reform
The UK Homecare Association calculates that, in 2020/21 the minimum hourly price to effectively cover the costs of social care should be £20.69. Read report.
The Real Living Wage is calculated by the Real Living Wage Foundation, as the minimum hourly rate is people need to live on.
The Fawcett Society published research and found that the majority of the public agree that social care workers are undervalued and they support higher pay for care workers.
We provide supported living and outreach support, helping and enabling autistic people to live in their own homes and make their own choices about the lives they want to lead.
Our relationship with the families of those we support is incredibly important to us and we work in partnership with families wherever possible.
All Autism at Kingwood support staff receive our Specialist Autism Training, making us leading care providers in Autism support.
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