Written submission from Sense (ERB0094)

Sense Submission – Business and Trade Committee’s call for evidence on the Employment Rights Bill

6 December 2024

Summary

This response is shaped by our insight as a social care provider to people with complex disabilities, as well as by our experience of employing a highly skilled workforce in the social care sector. We welcome the opportunity to share this insight with the Business and Trade Committee and would be keen to give oral evidence as part of the inquiry. We fully support the introduction of a Fair Pay Agreement to invest in the social care workforce, but for this to be implemented in practice we recommend:

• The Department for Health and Social Care should make sure that the Fair Pay Agreement is fully funded, meaning not for profit care providers can afford to introduce the Agreement in full.
• The Department for Health and Social Care should urgently bring forward plans to review social care to ensure a new plan can be established as soon as possible, and the Fair Pay Agreement is integrated in a wider long-term plan for system change.
• The Department for Business and Trade should amend the Employment Rights Bill so that the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body is required to include representation from the not-for-profit sector.
• The Department for Health and Social Care should work with the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Welsh Government to make sure that the introduction of Fair Pay Agreement can be accompanied by action to increase care sector wages in the devolved nations.

About Sense

Sense is a national disability charity supporting people with complex disabilities, including those who are deafblind. We offer a range of support services including specialist social care, specialist colleges and support to help disabled people find work. We believe that every disabled person should have the opportunity to connect with others and be included in the world. We use our knowledge and expertise to deliver personalised, creative and flexible support at every stage of life, no matter how complex someone’s disability.

Sense supports people to live the life they choose by adopting a Person-centered approach. This ensure the person is at the heart of what we do and enables them to plan and develop their own support, promotes choice, control and independence. Our expertise in communication allows us to do this. We take the time to understand the way the people we support communicate, which can include signing, symbols, objects of reference, gestures or body language. Whether it’s shopping for food, enabling someone to volunteer or work, following an education or training programme or trying a new activity, we support people to have a say in all aspects of their lives.

In 2023, we supported 700 people through our 10 Sense Centres, and 351 people through our accommodation services. In our residential care, each of the people we support have their own rooms, individual care plans and skilled support staff on hand 24 hours a day.

Our supported living service gives people with complex disabilities the opportunity to choose where to live, who to live with and what they do every day. Our skilled staff provide people with the level of support that is right for them, whether that is support 24 hours a day or support for part of the day, such as for personal care or making meals.

What impact will the areas covered by the Employment Rights Bill have on small, medium and large businesses? / What impact will these measures have on staff retention, hiring practices, probationary periods and wages?

Impact of Fair Pay Agreements

The need for higher wages, better terms and improved conditions

• Sense welcomes the inclusion of the power to establish an Adult Social Care Negotiating Body in the Employment Rights Bill.
• We support the introduction of a Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care, as disabled people have been deeply impacted by the failure of successive Governments to fund social care well enough to enable providers to pay good wages to care workers.
• As a result of this underfunding, low pay and poor conditions have become the norm in the social care sector. Unsurprisingly, this has a significant impact on morale among carers, who do not feel that their vital role in enabling disabled people to lead independent lives is recognised.
• This means that many care workers leave their jobs for better-paid roles in the NHS or in sectors with greater opportunities for career progression, such as retail.
• According to Skills for Care, the vacancy rate in adult social care was 8.3% in 2023/24. The turnover rate– percentage of people who have left their jobs in the sector over that same period – was 24.3%.[1]
• This has had a direct impact on many of the people we support, with Sense research finding last year over that nearly a third of people with complex disabilities who receive social care (31%) had experienced staff shortages over the previous 12 months.[2]
• A lack of consistency in the care workers delivering support can mean that disabled people do not get the best quality support. As one person who cares for a disabled person told us: ‘Good social care would mean having consistent carers who know [Susie’s] needs and fulfil them. There would be an appropriate level of staffing so I can access the community more without having to rely on family.”
• The continued failure to address the recruitment and retention crisis in the sector often leads to disabled people struggling to access the specialist support they need. [3]

Challenges for not-for-profit providers

• We want to pay our staff well and offer good terms and conditions, but, as a not-for-profit provider, our ability to do that is restricted by the fees we are paid by commissioners.
• Adult social care faces a significant funding shortfall, with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services finding that 81% of councils are expected to overspend their adult social care budget this year. [4]
• While we welcome the £600 million increase (later adjusted to £680 million) in social care funding announced at the Autumn Budget, this is unlikely to cover the changes to National Insurance for the sector, which independent research by the Nuffield Trust find will increase costs on providers by £2.8 billion.[5]
• Underfunding of social care has led to many commissioners repeatedly failing to give us fees that take into account the higher costs we have faced as a not-for-profit provider, such as increases in the minimum wage.
• This situation has become particularly acute in recent years, with some commissioners even offering us 0% fee increases despite higher costs. In this context, it can make it difficult for not-for-profit providers like Sense to offer our care workers wage increases that are higher than the minimum wage, as well as then configure subsequent pay increase for those in higher pay bands too.

The potential positive impact of Fair Pay Agreements.

• If done well, the introduction of standardised terms and conditions through the Fair Pay Agreement could help to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis by enabling providers to offer more competitive pay and improved terms and conditions.
• This would make a career in social care more attractive and limit the number of care workers leaving for the NHS or other sectors.
• This improvement in recruitment and retention would reduce the impact of staff shortages on access to social care, allowing more disabled people to access more consistent support that is better at enabling them to lead independent and meaningful lives.

The risk posed by inadequate funding.

• It is vital that these agreements are properly funded, as the introduction of higher wages will inevitably lead to higher costs for providers like Sense. While for-profit providers might be able to redirect their profits to help pay for this, not-for-profit providers like Sense would not be able to award a pay rise without additional funding from commissioners.
• If not-for-profit providers like Sense do not receive additional funding that covers the full cost of introducing the wages and conditions set out in the Fair Pay Agreement, they will not be able to implement the agreement.
• This prospect is particularly concerning as Clause 40 of the Employment Rights Bill allows the Secretary of State to introduce regulations to enforce the agreement. [6] It would not be fair to leave not-for-profits providers open to the possibility of enforcement action if statutory underfunding is the reason why they cannot increase wages.
• We want to make the Fair Pay Agreement a success, which is why we are calling for the Government to make sure it is fully funded, enabling us to continue delivering care to disabled people who need it the most.

The Department for Health and Social Care should make sure that the Fair Pay Agreement is fully funded, meaning care providers can afford to introduce the Agreement in full.

The Department for Health and Social Care should urgently bring forward plans to review social care to ensure a new plan can be established as soon as possible, and the Fair Pay Agreement is integrated in a wider long-term plan for system change.

The challenges posed by devolution.

• As would be expected given that health and social care are devolved, the Fair Pay Agreement will only apply in England. [7]
• As a provider operating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, we are concerned that the introduction of standardised pay in England alone could lead to a significant variation in pay across the United Kingdom.
• Given that the work of our care workers is equally valuable in Wales and Northern Ireland as it is in England, we do not want to be in a position where we pay care workers in England significantly more than care workers doing the same roles in Wales and Northern Ireland.
• But without additional funding to increase wages from the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive, this is likely to be the case.

The Department for Health and Social Care should work with the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Welsh Government to make sure that the introduction of Fair Pay Agreement can be accompanied by action to increase care sector wages in the devolved nations.

Making sure not for profit providers are represented on the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body

• We welcome the fact that the Employment Rights Bill requires the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body to include representatives from social care providers in the negotiation of the Fair Pay Agreement. [8]
• It is vital, however, that the interests of not-for-profit providers are also represented in the negotiations.
• Members of the National Care Forum, the membership organisation for not-for-profit organisations in the care and support sector, collectively deliver more than £3.7 billion in social care support to over 268,985 people in 8,238 care and support settings. [9]
• Not-for-profit providers plays a vital role in delivering adult social care. For the Fair Pay Agreement be effective, the negotiations will need to address the specific challenges that not-for-profit providers will face while implementing the Agreement.
• This is particularly important given that not-for-profit providers cannot fund any pay increases through reducing their profit margins, as for-profit providers might be able to do.
• For this reason, we are calling for not-for-profit providers to receive specific representation on the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body.

The Department for Business and Trade should amend the Employment Rights Bill so that the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body is required to include representation from the not-for-profit sector.

Contact us

For more information or to discuss the recommendations in this submission further, please contact Evan John, Policy and Public Affairs Advisor.