IPPR: Boost carer conditions to reward Covid efforts

In its Care Fit For Carers report, the IPPR recommends new policies relating to worker safety, accommodation, mental health, pay and care.

The pay guarantee would see all staff paid at least £9.30 per hour outside London and £10.75 within London.

The IPPR also called for social care pay to be benchmarked against NHS banding to reduce the high turnover rate in the sector.

The minimum benchmark, it said, should be NHS Band 3, the same as an emergency care assistant. Pay in this band begins at £19,737 a year, rising to £21,142 after two to three years of experience.

This minimum standard, in the first instance, should be funded by HM Treasury through uplifted commissioning budgets, the IPPR said.

In addition, the report argues Covid-19 front line carers should be paid an immediate bonus equivalent to 10 per cent of pay for all workers who were employed as of January 2020. For salaried workers, this should be paid against their annual salary.

The thinktank also called for key workers with children aged five and under to be eligible for a childcare needs assessment with a local authority, and funding allocated to provide for care for children five and under.

The safety guarantee meanwhile would ensure workers have enough PPE and testing in place throughout the crisis.

In addition, the IPPR suggests the UK should introduce a new bank holiday in 2021 to celebrate the health and care workforce in reaction to Covid-19 and their wider contribution to society.

Representative body Care England backed the report, saying it reflected on the implications the Covid-19 crisis has had upon the of wellbeing of the social care workforce.

”If there is one thing that this dreadful pandemic has shown us it is that the social care workforce is our greatest resource.  We must learn from this and train, resource and cherish the workforce accordingly,” said chief executive Martin Green.