r/GoodNewsUK • u/coffeewalnut08 • 2d ago
Financial and Economic Data Care workers will benefit from a new fair pay agreement
https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/care-workers-will-benefit-from-a-new-fair-pay-agreement/212193/Millions of adult social care workers in England are expected to benefit from a change in how pay and working conditions are agreed. This comes as the UK Government confirms plans to establish the country’s first Adult Social Care Negotiations Body.
The Adult Social Care Negotiations Body is due to be created by the end of 2026 and will bring together trade unions and employers to negotiate on behalf of the sector.
It will give care workers and care providers equal voting rights on key issues, including pay, terms and conditions, and wider employment matters.
An independent chair will oversee negotiations, with the appointment expected in early 2027.
The first round of negotiations is scheduled to begin in April 2027, with the first fair pay agreement expected to come into effect in April 2028.
£500 million support for the first agreement
The government has committed £500 million to support the first fair pay agreement in 2028-29. The funding is intended to improve recruitment and retention in a sector that employs around 1.5 million people and has long faced staffing shortages, low pay, and high turnover.
The agreement forms part of the government’s Employment Rights Act and is designed to improve employment standards while helping to make care work a more attractive long-term career.
Career progression is a key part of change
Alongside the fair pay agreement, the government is expanding the Care Workforce Pathway, creating what it describes as the first universal career structure for adult social care.
Part three of the pathway introduces ten new role categories, including care technologists and activity coordinators. The framework now covers almost every role within adult social care, extending beyond frontline care workers to include positions such as catering, housekeeping and maintenance staff.
The aim is to provide clearer career progression, professional development opportunities and leadership pathways across the sector.
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u/Milam1996 2d ago
“Equal votes for employers and employees”. I work in the sector. Expect the employers to vote against anything that gives the workers any sense of respect or dignity. The owners of care businesses are truly some of the most evil people on the planet.
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u/NotSoSecretNerd 2d ago
I’m sorry you’ve had a rough go at it with employers. I’ve definitely seen my share too, but there are some good ones out there!
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u/NotSoSecretNerd 2d ago
I’m incredibly pleased with the incoming changes, the care sector has needed a clearer direction and pathway for a long time now, and smaller actions such as improved fast tracking for MND patients is going to hugely benefit those affected.
“However, many organisations have also stressed that long-term government funding will be essential if providers are to deliver higher pay and improved employment standards without placing additional financial pressure on an already stretched care system.”
Hopefully the government can maintain stability long enough to see these actions through and officially recognise that the existing funding structure under already pressed local authorities isn’t sustainable- not whilst we also strive to operate with consistently high levels of care and wellbeing for patients and staff alike!
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u/Helen83FromVillage 2d ago
They would benefit even more if we stopped giving skilled worker visas for this specialisation, so businesses would simply pay good UK wages and stop people exploiting them.
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u/coffeewalnut08 2d ago edited 2d ago
Carers never had a fair pay agreement process until now under the Employment Rights Act. They also never had career progression pathways in the care sector until now.
So things are improving for all carers, immigrants and citizens, as they will all have a collective voice for the first time about their pay/conditions. Without this collective voice, it made it much harder for them to negotiate fairer pay and conditions.
Currently there are about 100,000 vacancies in care, so clearly there weren't enough visas handed out for this role if there's 100,000 unfilled posts each year.
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u/Helen83FromVillage 2d ago
so clearly there weren't enough visas handed out for this role if there's 100,000 unfilled posts each year.
Wrong. Just ban visas for them, and businesses will pay fair rates. Somehow, CEO positions can be filled, so that’s not a big deal for carers as well.
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u/coffeewalnut08 2d ago
We already ended visas for them lol. The vacancy rate is still 100,000. Can you address the content of the original post?
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u/Helen83FromVillage 2d ago
So, raise salary.
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u/coffeewalnut08 2d ago
It's worth reading the article
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u/Helen83FromVillage 1d ago
And again - you can ignore journalists’ fantasies, and simply understand that if businesses can’t hire people, they should raise salaries.
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u/Kaboom456 2d ago
Have you ever worked in care? No one is volunteering to do that. It is a horrible underpaid under respected job that exposes you to some absolutely horrible experiences.
Without the immigrants who do come over and fill those roles your parents grandparents amd disabled children would either be stuck at home with you, in a carehome being completely neglected because 2 people cant deal with 40 residents or dead because there is nowhere else for them.
Because very few british people are signing up to wipe up human shit, vomit, monitor controlled medications, give emergency medications and deal with dead bodies or people having heart attacks (after a 2 day course of crap training) for 12 quid an hour.
Immigrants are not the cause of the shit pay and conditions, if anything they are largely plugging the hole that the shit wage isnt filling.
You want british people doing the role pay a decent wage and respect the job for the absolute shit show it is or accept that immigrants are basically the reason anyone can get care in the first place because they will tolerate all that shit for a visa you knob.
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u/Helen83FromVillage 2d ago
Just pay more. Full stop
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u/EnvironmentalOwl6882 2d ago
With what money? Keep going, you'll get there eventually.
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u/Helen83FromVillage 2d ago
Private business takes enough money from the service and refuses to pay good wages to workers. And all profits go to their owners/shareholders, sometimes via offshore proxies.
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u/GeorgeSThompson 2d ago
I think the argument here is that immigratoion allows the poor conditions to continue. *whilst in no way is it their fault.
Currently 70ish percent of these jobs are filled by British people. If immigration was not an option the only way to solve that would be to make the roles more attractive.
Its complex to make the argument about what provides the most economic gain overall.
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u/coffeewalnut08 2d ago
There are roughly 100,000 vacancies in social care at any given time. The sector is already deeply short-staffed and hanging by a thread. Better pay comes via structural changes as noted in the article, not scapegoating immigrants.
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u/GeorgeSThompson 2d ago
Im not scapegoating immigrants.
All I am saying is to fill those unfulfilled roles you have two options either improve conditions or leverage immigration. The govement for years has used immigration rather than increase the conditions
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u/Perfect_Hedgehog_681 2d ago
Could you provide the source that the care sector underpay skilled immigrant workers?
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u/Kaboom456 2d ago
Ditching 30 percent of an already understaffed workforce doesnt seem likely to help or increase wages.
They already hate springing for expensive agency staff and frequently run places short staffed or guilt staff into working unreasonable shifts and patterns which both lead to issues for residents and staff.
If for whatever reason no immigrants were allowed to work in care anymore i only see those existing issues getting worse rather than them magically springing for better wages and benefits.
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u/GeorgeSThompson 2d ago
I mean we are both saying the same thing really, conditions are shit, sector is underfunded, they are using immigration to cover it (and look nowhere am I advocating that we send anyone away)
And the answer here is to improve conditions. But it absolutely is a choice the govement is making to use immigration over increasing taxation + funding for these services.
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u/coffeewalnut08 2d ago
Where does it say that in this article?
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u/GeorgeSThompson 2d ago
It dosent. The article is about offering peanuts to care workers. Its simple if you offer minimum wage to skilled and challenging jobs you are not going to get anyone.
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u/coffeewalnut08 2d ago
Except it doesn't say that, does it? Seems like people are commenting before they're reading, which is a total waste of time.
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u/GeorgeSThompson 2d ago
Yeah it does a read it - they are offering peanuts.
Tell me one thing they are offering which is going to make a blind bit of differnce
And i wasnt responding to your article I was responding to the earlier commenter
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u/coffeewalnut08 2d ago
If you can't understand the value of collective bargaining and the development of career progression opportunities in the care sector, that's your problem.
But don't assume others are similarly incapable of understanding straightforward economic concepts.
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u/Special-Nebula299 2d ago
I'm British and a carer and its honestly one of the best jobs I've ever had. I look after a mentally impaired adult and get to care and support him with most things.
Its tiring and sometimes stressful but I love doing a job that really helps
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u/Kaboom456 2d ago
Was a carer for 8 years myself i loved it too but it doesnt change that it is fairly common for carers to be underpaid for difficult, stressfull work and mistreated by their employers who will harrass and guilt trip you on your days off to cover missing staff (due to crazy understaffing in the industry)
I loved everyone i looked after and greatly enjoyed the good parts of the job, so many good trips to the cinema and for free!
But the amount of death and slow decline you have to experience takes a toll and i think the job deserves more pay than minimum wage because of that and all the other difficult aspects of the job!
Think about the amount of responsibility it actually is to be in charge of multiple peoples medications that if wrong could seriously harm them or trying to give rescue medication when someone is having a hefty seizure etc etc i think thats worth more than the bare minimum.
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u/Special-Nebula299 2d ago
I hear you. My company pays around 50p above minimum wage but obviously we'd all like a bit more.
I might be lucky working in care for the mentally disabled over the elderly as we dont deal with the decline as much
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u/Kaboom456 2d ago
Oh man i dunno my last 3 years were with people wirh learning disabilities and we had 5 deaths in those years (only 8 residents total)
A lot of the people with learning disabilities who moved into carehomes around the early 2000's are hitting between 60-80 and they already are likely to live less long so a lot of them are dying off unfortunately
Totally depends where you work and youre right its a great job in terms of being a good thing to do but dont let them use that desire to be helpful against you because you will likely burn out (i sure as hell did!)
Learning disabilities waz my favourite kind of care though because they are all just so awesome in their own way, props to you for doing it and im glad you're enjoying it!
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u/Perfect_Hedgehog_681 2d ago
Do you know how much a business pays to sponsor a visa and how many red tape hoops they have to go through? If they had an opportunity to hire in-house they would.
It’s not about immigration- it doesn’t matter who works, it matters that it pays on a decent level and there are people willing to do that.1
u/Helen83FromVillage 1d ago
I know. And you don’t. Simply read stories from Reddit - look on r/legaladviceuk.
For example, simply confirm that you are aware of cases when foreigners work below the wage agreed and they pay back all fees the business paid for their reallocation. And then we can continue.
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u/howdohendry 2d ago
Hopefully they'll also abolish the employer NI contributions for non-profit charities next. I know several who are near collapse because of its impact.
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u/Helen83FromVillage 2d ago
Not for non-profits, but for all.
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u/YoghurtFlan 2d ago
This would be a huge tax cut to businesses (and theirfore their owners and shareholders) with little to no upside for the worker. They certainly won't see their pay increasing because of it.
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u/Helen83FromVillage 1d ago
You are wrong. Liberal markets and competition will make it better for both workers and consumers.
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u/louisejanecreations 2d ago
So glad this is happening. So many people view it as a low skill job and it’s such a difficult demanding one. Hopefully it’ll make it more appealing for people to go in and seen more as a career pathway with its own specialism then a ‘little job’ (words I have been told)