- Conference
- 2025 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 10 June 2025
- Decision
- Carried
At last year’s Conference we agreed to call upon the National Retired Members Committee to support the Ethical Care Charter and support UNISON’s campaign for care to be delivered by a well paid and well trained workforce.
Negotiations are currently under way between ministers, employers and unions to establish a fair pay agreement in adult social care in England. This aims to improve pay and conditions to tackle the growing workforce crisis.
Changes being introduced in the government’s immigration white paper mean care companies will no longer be able to recruit from overseas. This makes it all the more urgent that the care sector increases its appeal as a career destination for UK workers.
Conference welcomes the report “Seizing the Opportunity- a Fair Pay Agreement for Social Care from the Fabian Society.” published in May 2025.This report calls for a higher minimum wage in care to be set at a rate that most healthcare assistants doing clinical tasks should be paid at in the NHS. It also calls for an increase investment in training and development, with all staff expected to have or be working towards the Care Certificate.
Low pay and poor conditions are the major driver of the workforce crisis in social care, which jeopardises the very sustainability of the sector. There are 120,000 unfilled vacancies in social care, with one in ten care worker roles vacant. Three in ten care workers left their role last year, a turnover rate three times higher than that seen in the NHS.
This is why it is important that Retired Members continue playing their part in the campaign and once again we call upon the National Retired Members Committee to continue to raise awareness about the workforce crisis in Social Care.