Improving pay and recognition is a strategic goal for United Response, and we have committed to increasing our pay rate to match the Real Living Wage. However, with local authority fee uplifts rarely meeting the rising costs providers face, we, like many others have funded this from our charitable reserves. But this is not sustainable. As this report lays bare, providers are concluding that they can no longer subsidise the state.  

A better-paid social care workforce is an investment, which we have been calling for the government to prioritise. A solution would be to create an integrated social care and health workforce strategy with rates of pay, terms and conditions tied to the NHS Agenda for Change. However, this must come with local authority funding for providers to meet these costs. 

At United Response, we are committed to achieving Social Care Future’s vision for society. 

We all want to live in a place we call home, with the people and things that we love, in communities where we look out for one another, doing things that matter to us.

But, with 42% of providers reporting that they have had to close down part of their business or hand back contracts to local authorities, the Sector Pulse Check report should raise alarm bells about what this means for that vision.

Tim Cooper, United Response CEO said to the iNewspaper this week: 

“I’ve spent over 30 years in the sector, starting from closing down the old institutions. We’ve made tremendous gains over that period in terms of people’s independence, their quality of life, their ability to live lives as citizens in their local communities. 

“I think there is a risk that we lose those gains. Not overnight, but incrementally that the level of support, the number of hours of support people get is reduced, the choice about where they can live is reduced and the quality of support that they get is under threat.”

To address the growing crisis in social care, United Response is calling for:

  • VAT exemptions for adult social care providers on agency staff costs.
  • Review how a cap on overall agency costs could be introduced.
  • Align and uplift social care workers’ pay rates to NHS band 3.
  • Invest in newer, innovative ways to commission and deliver services.

Read HFT and Care Englands Sector Pulse Check here.

You can learn more about how we are creating change on our website here and follow our campaigning work on Twitter.

  • Ali Gunn is United Response’s Head of Public Affairs and Policy