We cannot fix social care on the cheap. Sick care workers need full pay

Britain’s care system has never experienced such intense political and public attention. We have clapped our carers and heard politicians promise varying combinations of warm words, enamel badges and commitments to fix the system at some unknown date in the future. We need to talk about care, and those of us involved with the trade unions of care workers welcome this new found interest in the long under-appreciated public service.

But despite the attention, the truth of the matter is that Covid-19 has exposed a fundamental and pre-existing vulnerability in our care system that has been ignored for decades. Britain’s care system relies on a weighty imbalance to generate bloated profits for private companies, with care workers paid the bare minimum and care home residents often shelling out thousands of pounds from their savings to fund their care.

Not only this, but the emotional capital of care workers – their caring nature and good intentions – prop up a system that relies on residents feeling safe, secure and cared for. The urgent and pressing priority of this crisis is that of vulnerability to infection, and the national scandal that the vast majority of care workers are still only entitled to statutory sick pay, just £95.85 a week, when they get sick themselves.

The GMB’s recent care survey exposed just how real this is for those on the frontline. 78% of care workers would consider returning to work before they had recovered from an illness due to the impact of being put on statutory sick pay. Even more shockingly, over 80% of care workers would even consider borrowing from friends and family or taking on debt to make ends meet as a result of the impact of being put on the benefit.

The issue is this: workers, in a healthcare setting, being placed on this rate of sick pay is an infection control risk. Most social care staff simply cannot afford to be sick under the current statutory arrangements. This is a national scandal – and that is why the GMB has launched its ‘Care Full Pay‘ campaign to call for care workers to receive full sick pay when they are unwell.

Full pay whilst unwell is now widely accepted as an effective infection control measure in care. Our campaign has already seen major wins in this area with care providers across the country agreeing to the demand for full sick pay for residential social care staff in cases of Covid-19.

The GMB has been leading the call nationally, within the regions and in devolved administrations for full sick pay as an infection control measure. We informed ministers as early as March 2020 that inadequate sick pay was a massive infection risk in the care sector. The union wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock and care minister Helen Whately multiple times to warn that creating a perverse incentive to come into work sick or while self-isolating would exacerbate the spread the Covid-19 within care settings.

The government’s ‘adult social care infection control fund’ does not go far enough in making this a reality. The GMB is calling for a clear directive from central government for care providers to utilise new funding streams and introduce full sick pay in cases of Covid-19, and to make full sick pay as a long-term protection for care workers, care home residents and their families.

This campaign is about the government and care providers putting their money where their mouth is. You cannot fix the problems in care on the cheap, but it can be done if we have the political and public will to do it. If you are with us, you can add your name to those of thousands of care workers across the country and sign the GMB’s Care Full Pay petition.