Words Don’t Fill a Rota: What Fair Pay for Care Workers Must Look Like
“Care workers should be the best-paid people in society, not the worst.”
When the Prime Minister said those words in July, I welcomed them. Anyone who has worked in care knows how much that recognition matters. Reported by PA Media in The Standard.
I have worked shifts on the floor. I now lead a team and run a care staffing agency. I understand the responsibility of delivering care, and the pressure of finding the right people to deliver it.
Behind every name on a rota is someone carrying responsibility for another person’s dignity, safety and wellbeing. Behind every unfilled shift is a manager trying to protect continuity of care, a colleague being asked to do more, and someone who needs support.
So yes, the words matter.
But words don’t fill a rota. They don’t pay a care worker’s rent, create time for proper supervision or give a young person confidence that care offers a future.
If we are serious about valuing care workers, that value must become visible in funding, career opportunities and everyday working conditions.
The promise has to reach the payslip
The government has committed £500 million to support the first adult social care Fair Pay Agreement in England in 2028–29. That is a welcome commitment, and an opportunity to improve how pay and conditions are set across the sector. Government announcement.
But the test will be what that funding buys.
A meaningful pay settlement must account for more than the headline hourly rate. Employers also have to fund pension contributions, National Insurance, holiday pay and the differences between roles.
If a newly recruited care worker receives a pay increase, what happens to the experienced senior supporting them? What happens to the deputy manager carrying additional responsibilities?
We need fair starting pay and a fair reward for experience.
Providers have raised concerns about whether the funding will support the scale of reform required. Leonard Cheshire, for example, argues that moving towards comparable pay bands, conditions and pension entitlements will require more than the sum currently committed. Leonard Cheshire’s funding analysis.
This is where commissioning matters. Councils need the resources to pay fees that reflect the actual cost of delivering good care, including fair wages.
Otherwise, providers face difficult choices: absorb costs they cannot sustain, reduce investment, restrict capacity or hand back services.
A pay rise should strengthen care provision. It should not leave a service struggling to afford the hours people need.
For providers and commissioners, preparation should begin with a practical question: what would a properly funded pay settlement cost across the whole workforce?
That means understanding the wage bill, associated employment costs and pay differences between roles before the agreement arrives.
Care must offer a future people can see
We often talk about attracting more people into care. We need to be just as clear about why they would stay.
A recruitment advert can promise a rewarding career. The workplace has to demonstrate one.
Someone joining as a care assistant should be able to understand what comes next: the skills they can develop, the qualifications available, the responsibilities they can take on and the pay that follows.
The Care Workforce Pathway provides a framework for development, including enhanced care worker and management roles. Its value will depend on how employers put it into practice. Department of Health and Social Care evidence.
That requires more than handing someone a training link.
It means paid learning time, mentoring, opportunities to practise new skills and transparent criteria for progression. It means answering the question: “If I develop, how will my role and pay develop with me?”
There should also be more than one route forward.
Some people want to become senior carers or registered managers. Others want to build expertise in dementia support, learning disability services or end-of-life care. Some may pursue nursing through the necessary education and professional registration.
And some want to remain excellent care workers.
They deserve progression and recognition too. Moving into management should not be the only way to earn more.
As leaders, we should be able to sit down with every member of staff and explain their options. If we cannot, our career promise needs work.
International colleagues need clarity and support
Overseas recruitment of care workers and senior care workers through the Health and Care Worker visa route has closed. Transitional arrangements allow eligible people already in England to access sponsorship opportunities until July 2028. Skills for Care guidance.
That creates a serious workforce planning challenge.
It also affects people who have built lives here, developed relationships with those they support and become trusted members of their teams.
We must be precise about what the changes mean. The 2028 deadline should not be presented as an automatic end to every international colleague’s right to work or remain. The government has stated that existing sponsored workers can continue to extend their stay, change sponsors and apply to settle, subject to the relevant requirements. Government explanation.
Employers should help staff access accurate information and qualified advice where needed. Uncertainty should not be left to grow through rumours in the staff room.
At the same time, services need realistic recruitment plans. Building a stronger domestic workforce requires sustained investment in pay, training and working conditions. It cannot happen simply because an overseas route has closed.
International colleagues deserve fair treatment, reliable employment and opportunities to progress. Their contribution should be recognised in how we support them every day.
Respect must be felt on the next shift
Managers cannot resolve national funding problems alone. But we influence what it feels like to work in our services.
Does a new colleague receive a proper induction? Is supervision protected, or repeatedly cancelled? Can staff raise a concern and expect action? Are rotas predictable enough for people to organise childcare and family life?
These details tell people whether they are valued.
A thank-you matters. So does a manager noticing someone’s contribution, following up after a difficult shift and listening without becoming defensive.
But training, supervision and safe staffing require resources. We should not describe them as costing little when staff time and cover must be funded.
They are part of delivering good care.
Skills for Care’s research associates training, relevant qualifications, pay and employment arrangements with better retention. That reinforces a practical lesson: keeping people requires attention to the whole job. Skills for Care’s workforce findings.
For registered managers, a useful starting point is to:
- Ask staff what makes a shift unnecessarily difficult, then act on a problem you can resolve.
- Review induction and support during the first few months of employment.
- Protect supervision and paid development time.
- Explain clearly how responsibilities, progression and pay connect.
- Feed back what has changed after staff raise concerns.
Listening builds trust when people can see that it leads somewhere.
Progress is welcome. Complacency would be costly
England’s adult social care vacancy rate fell to 6.2% in 2025–26, its lowest level in a decade. That is progress worth recognising. Skills for Care’s latest vacancy figures.
But a lower vacancy rate does not remove the need to plan ahead.
Skills England estimates demand for around 685,000 workers across priority adult social care occupations between 2026 and 2035. That figure includes both workforce growth and replacing people who leave; it does not mean 685,000 additional posts. Skills England’s assessment.
The challenge is substantial. We need to attract people, help them develop and give them reasons to stay.
Ultimately, fair pay is about whether a skilled, responsible job allows someone to build a stable life. It is about whether experience counts, whether commitment is rewarded and whether people can afford to continue doing work society depends on.
Care workers support people through some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. They deserve a system that supports them in return.
The best-paid people in society? I welcome the ambition.
I would settle for a lasting commitment that we will never again accept care workers being among the worst paid.
Care Manager/Leaders: if you could change one thing for your team tomorrow, what would it be — and what would help you make it happen?
