It is high time that care workers were treated with the respect they deserve

Undervalued, undermined and underpaid. This is the unacceptable reality for social care staff whose wages fail to reflect the challenging and highly skilled nature of their work. They do a vital job in care homes and the community, looking after the nation’s elderly, disabled people and those with mental health issues.

From administering medication to ensuring people can live independently, their dedication means the difference between family and loved ones being able to cope, or not. But the woefully underfunded social care sector is facing a staffing crisis, and pay is at the heart of the problem. Employees can’t survive on such low hourly rates, especially when faced with the soaring cost of living, which has left them struggling.

To make matters worse, many home care workers are effectively paying to do their jobs. Rising fuel costs and low mileage rates are forcing care staff to look elsewhere for work. They can no longer afford to pay out for petrol to visit the people they look after. This is especially the case in rural areas. Inadequate wages and sick pay are major reasons for leaving the sector. Vacancy rates are the worst in the entire UK economy; there are now 165,000 unfilled jobs in care and the number keeps rising.

Behind the data is human misery and distress on a massive scale; older people left in bed for hours when they could be active, disabled adults unable to access the care packages they need, people who are medically fit but stuck in hospital for weeks because there are no care workers to look after them. Medical leaders are so concerned that people won’t get the care they need that they have described the system as “deeply flawed“.

The nightmare will continue and worsen unless staff receive a significant wage rise. A workforce strategy is need too. One that provides a plan for rewarding careers in the sector attached to fair wages. Yet the government has consistently ducked responsibility for improving pay and working conditions for care workers.

Boris Johnson promised to fix social care and Liz Truss has also pledged reform. Neither has delivered on their promises. Social care is in a dire state. A lack of will and ambition are to blame for the government’s lacklustre proposals, which are already unravelling.

UNISON has repeatedly warned ministers about the need to do more. So have employers. The government’s response is to claim that local labour markets and independent employers will sort the pay issue. But the truth is that the buck stops with ministers to tackle pay in social care, whether or not they choose to acknowledge this. A more visionary approach is needed, not more sidestepping.

The urgent priority should be for national mandatory standards on pay and conditions to stop the race to the bottom. Acute underfunding, fragmentation of the sector and providers motivated by profit have driven down wages to the lowest possible level. Research published recently by UNISON shows that executives at private equity firms running care homes are collecting 13 times the wages of the staff they employ. Some of the UK’s biggest care home chains have seen their profit margins widen significantly and director salaries surge. This is morally wrong and reflects the chaos of the current care system.

A fair pay agreement in social care would help sweep away profiteering, and drive-up standards. The government, unions, employers and local authorities need to come together to hammer out a deal on care worker wages. Labour has already announced that in government it would bring in these very agreements in social care. This will provide hope to existing staff – and those seeking to join the sector – and show that society is serious about making this a career of choice.

UNISON is already taking part in conversations about how a reformed care service might work. Clearly, it will need to be fully costed and funded. But delivering an improved system was never going to come cheap. In the longer term, the aim should be to drive up employment standards to a point where workers will move between the NHS and social care. Staff will be able to transfer their skills, safe in the knowledge that they will no longer be exploited.

No one should be taken for granted – it is high time that care workers were treated with the respect they deserve. Only then will we have a sector fit for those who depend on the care that staff provide tirelessly day in and day out.

READ LABOUR’S NEW DEAL FOR WORKING PEOPLE HERE