- Conference
- 2024 National Community Conference and Seminar
- Date
- 15 November 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that low pay for care workers doing a difficult and skilled job is the norm in the care sector. Care workers are undervalued by an underfunded, marketised and fragmented social care system which is built to drive down care worker terms and conditions and allows the government to dodge responsibility for the staffing crisis this has caused. There are currently 152,000 vacancies in the care sector, by far the worst vacancy rate for any public service. Social care members are spread across UNISON service groups, but a large number are employed by Charities and not for profit organisations.
Conference also notes UNISON’s concerted campaign for a national care service which includes a call for a national pay structure for social care. Conference considers Labour’s promise to introduce a Fair Pay Agreement in social care to be a positive first step towards dealing with endemic low pay in the sector. But we must be as ambitious for our care sector members as we are for members in other sectors like health and local government. In those sectors, there is a fully job evaluated national structure for all job roles. This means that pay reflects the actual responsibilities that workers have.
Conference notes that UNISON has already commissioned a research organisation to map pay and conditions in social care for all job roles in the sector, giving the union a firm foundation of accurate information on which to campaign on this issue.
Conference further notes that in the care sector, many care workers are responsible for issuing medication. This is a job activity which is not included in the responsibilities, for example, of a Band 3 worker in the NHS. These responsibilities are onerous and can come with significant consequences if any mistakes are made. Conference believes that any fair system of pay in social care should reflect the actual level of responsibility and skills needed to do a job. Such a system should respect the devolved nature of social care, but believes this principle should be put into effect across the whole of the UK.
Even after a future government has, hopefully, boosted social care pay via a fair pay agreement, there will be a need for a job evaluation system which captures the actual responsibilities of care workers. Such a system would also provide a framework for training and qualifications which is currently missing, and allow care workers to progress according to their actual responsibilities.
Conference therefore calls on the Community Service Group Executive to:
•Work with UNISON Labour Link, the National Executive Council and other stakeholders including lobbying political parties in positions of power and influence in Scotland, Cymru/Wales and Northern Ireland to highlight the need for a fully evaluated national structure for job roles in social care, respecting the devolved nature of social care.
•Campaign with other service groups for the implementation of a fully evaluated national structure for job roles in social care across the UK
•Campaign for full funding from government to implement a fully evaluated national structure for job roles in social care.
