Nurse: 'Carers get paid less than a paper round'

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Britain’s carers should be paid more to halt an alarming exodus, experts say. Tens of thousands are quitting highly skilled and demanding jobs to flip burgers and pack boxes for more money. Industry chiefs said a deepening crisis has left the sector on a knife edge and tens of millions of vulnerable patients exposed.

And as strikes continue to blight the entire public sector, they warned a cost-of-living catastrophe had hastened the erosion of morale among those keeping Britain’s ­crumbling social care sector afloat.

In a letter to Rishi Sunak leading voices including the National Association of Care and Support Workers and The Care Workers Charity demanded national minimum wage for staff of at least £15 an hour.

It says: “Should care workers strike it would cause the whole NHS system to fail and leave thousands of vulnerable people without the care and support they need.

“We want to propose a new social care minimum wage of £15 per hour for all care workers.

“We fully understand social care requires much more to get back on its feet than a new hourly rate for care workers.

“But if we do not attract people into the sector and retain them against strong competition of other sectors, we will not have a workforce to meet the increasing needs of the population.

“With seven Prime Ministers promising to fix social care and failing, we ask you to be the one who starts to address the issues social care faces, starting with wages.”

The letter conveys the strength of feeling among those who feel vital work carried out by hundreds of thousands of deeply committed professionals has been taken for granted.

Those carrying out around-the-clock duties describe a chaotic and unregulated industry in which poor pay and unmanageable hours are the norm. It has left many ­seriously ill with burnout and stress.

They claim the sector is the Cinderella service to the NHS, which is held aloft and whose workforce is revered and respected.

Most carers get around £10 an hour, but research suggests about 500,000 get £9 or less, forcing many to leave for jobs in supermarkets, warehouses or fast food ­outlets. Amazon warehouse recruits can get £13.50 an hour and a £1,000 signing-on bonus.

In the People Plan White Paper launched last year, Adam Purnell, Director of Social Care at the Institute of Health and Social Care Management, said root-and-branch reform was needed to address the crisis.

He wrote: “Social care is heavily fragmented and lacks a unified voice.

“A lack of professionalised recognition with a myriad of other issues, such as pay, has created a perception the sector is made up of unskilled individuals with no real career aspirations.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. Improved working conditions include not just an increase in wages, but additional ­benefits on par with NHS employees, ­investment and tangible solutions to support the ­well-being of the workforce and changes to training to allow transfer of skills.

“Crucially, we need to change the term care worker to care professional. Without combating the negative image of social care, recruitment will always struggle.”

Almost all care home operators have reported an alarming increase in staff quitting with the main reason being better pay for fewer hours. It comes as estimates suggest 25 percent of the social care workforce is over 55 and will retire in the next decade.

Care worker vacancy rates are now around 11 percent – twice as high as the national average – with some 165,000 posts unfilled.

Given the rapidly ageing population, experts predict posts will need to increase by about 480,000 to 2.27 million by 2035.

In the White Paper, Mr Purnell said: “Recruitment has been a challenge for a number of years but vacancies are rapidly increasing and many providers are reporting they are finding it such a challenge they are now concerned about business viability.”

Damian Green, who was Theresa May’s number two when she was PM, warned the entire care system was at risk of collapse unless workers were paid as much as nurses.

Mr Green, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adult Social Care, said Britain desperately needed more staff and only pay parity with NHS nurses would solve the crisis.

He said: “We need more care workers, whether they come from abroad or whether they are home-grown. And when we get them, we need to keep them.

“The way to do that is to have salary ­parity with the NHS, otherwise you will end up losing care workers to the NHS.

“If you’re doing the same job in the social care sector as in the NHS, then ­straightforwardly many will decide to move to the NHS.”

Megan Fisher, of the GMB Union, said: “Social care workers look after the most vulnerable members of society every day. Years of chronic undervaluing of their vital work has led this sector to a workforce crisis.

“These findings come as no surprise and echo what GMB’s care members have been saying for years.

“The lack of decent pay, with limited or non-existent sick pay, means that workers are effectively pressured to work when sick.

“We need action – not just warm words – to retain these skilled workers.

“That’s why we are calling for ­£15-per-hour for care workers – to keep those we have and recruit those we need.”

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