- Conference
- 2024 National Community Conference and Seminar
- Date
- 17 November 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes the well-documented crisis in social care, with low pay, high vacancy rates, job insecurity and poor working conditions creating a ‘perfect storm’ in which employers are unable to recruit and retain staff, workers are underpaid and overworked, and local authorities are in danger of being unable to fulfil their statutory obligations to provide care services.
For example, the Skills for Care report published in October 2023 found that the job vacancy rate in the sector was 9.9% in 2022/23, compared with the national vacancy rate for the UK workforce.
According to the Kings Fund, young workers make up 8% of the social care workforce, and the high rates of staff turnover are exacerbated in this group: in 2021/22, the turnover rate among social care workers under 20 was 53 per cent and for those aged 20–29 it was 43 per cent. These conditions have a significant impact on workers’ wellbeing in the sector.
Conference notes the 2022 report by UNISON’s National Young Members Forum which found that 80% of young UNISON members had experienced a mental health problem in the last year, and further notes the extensive research showing that people aged 18-24 are one of the groups most affected by the cost of living crisis. Conference believes these factors are likely to exacerbate the impact of the social care crisis on young workers in social care.
Conference recognises and welcomes the work done to date by UNISON and UNISON’s Community Service Group Executive in seeking to improve working conditions for all workers in social care, and in campaigning for a national care service. Conference believes the most effective way to improve wellbeing in the sector is to have a well-funded national care service with nationally agreed pay scales and high working standards.
Conference asks the Community Service Group Executive to:
1)Work with the National Young Members Forum to understand the numbers of young UNISON members working in social care, the roles they hold, and to map where they work;
2)Work with the National Young Members Forum and other relevant parts of the union to develop a strategy to increase UNISON membership among young social care workers;
3)Consider surveying young members working in social care to identify the specific issues they are experiencing at work which have led to large turnover rates in social care particularly among young workers;
4)Publicise UNISON’s welfare service There for You and other support available from UNISON to young members in the social care sector;
5)Promote the National Young Members Forum’s campaign, Young Members Mental Health Matters, to branches and members in the Community Service Group;
6)Work with the NEC and other relevant sections of the union to continue to campaign for a well-funded national care service with nationwide pay scales, and a long-term workforce plan.
