Organisations from throughout the social care sector have been collaborating under the leadership of Skills for Care to produce this strategy for the government. Launched yesterday (18th July 2024), this workforce strategy provides a programme of recommendations designed to address the growing issue of understaffing within social care. It was a privilege to attend the launch on behalf of Homecare Workers' Group members.
The strategy includes very strong recommendations to tackle underpayment of the National Minimum Wage as a result of unpaid travel time in domiciliary care. The organisations which handled this part of the strategy were Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation, who published their full findings and recommendations in this joint report yesterday.
In its section about the recruitment and retention of staff, the strategy looks at how much it would cost and what savings would be made to public funds as a result of us all being paid at least the National Living Wage (the bare minimum recommendation on pay) all the way through to an equivalent cost-benefit analysis for if our pay were to match that of NHS Band 3 workers (the most ambitious of pay recommendations included in the strategy).
The publication of this strategy does not mean change is inevitable. It is now in the hands of the newly-formed Labour government to turn the recommendations contained within this strategy into policy. That is in no way guaranteed, and is why members of Homecare Workers' Group will continue to campaign for improved employment conditions in social care.
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