T H E P U B L I C AT I O N F O R N U R S I N G A N D R E S I D E N T I A L C A R E H O M E S Issue 129
W W W. T H E C A R E R U K . C O M
THECARERUK
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THECARER_UK
New Report Calls for Urgent Action to Reduce Social Care Workers Pay Gap A new report entitled ‘Unfair To Care 2022’ has revealed that social care workers are undervalued by more than £8,000 compared to their exact equivalents in the NHS and that at current rates it will take more than 23 years to arrive at equal pay.’ The report warns that without urgent action, this crisis is set to escalate for more than a generation. The 2022 edition of Unfair to Care, commissioned by NCF member, Community Integrated Care reveals that social care support workers would need a 41% pay rise – equalling £8,036 – to have parity with their direct equivalents within the NHS, Band 3 Healthcare Assistants. It would take 23 years for current rates of uplift to deliver parity with the NHS. The report demonstrates that modern frontline social care requires complex technical and emotional skills, to effectively support people who commonly have complex medical and
behavioural needs, proving that social care is significantly undervalued. Commenting on the report Professor Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of the National Care Forum –said: “This is a really valuable report, building on the benchmarking work delivered last year by Community Integrated Care. It brings together insights from across the care and support sector which highlight, yet again, the level of skill needed to be a care and support worker and just how demanding it is to provide high quality, person centred care and support. Last year, Community Integrated Care partnered with job evaluation platform Korn Ferry to conduct an independent assessment of the role of a frontline Support Worker, objectively assessing its true value across sectors.
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