GMB union demands the UK employs enough carers to look after our aging population in motion at Labour Party Conference
Britain needs 350,000 more social care workers to hit international safe staffing levels to care for our elderly.
The GMB union has highlighted staff shortages after experts warned lack of formal social care is driving people to quit their jobs as the numbers providing over 35 hours of unpaid care a week have increased by 70%. Increasingly middle aged women are left filling the gaps to look after parents, spouses or their disabled adult children
The UK currently has no legal minimum for care work but other countries – such as Japan and Finland – enforce as much as three service users for each employed carer.
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For this country to hit this 3:1 ratio would require more than 350,000 new carers.
GMB will move a motion at Labour Party Conference on Tuesday calling for safe staffing levels in care homes to be enshrined in law.
Jo Pitchford, GMB Bolton Care Branch Secretary, will tell the conference in Liverpool: “The UK is still in the midst of a crushing care crisis, with a staffing vacancy black hole of more than 131,000 and care worker pay just pennies above the minimum wage. Two-thirds of care workers have told GMB they cannot continue working until retirement.
“Inadequate and poorly followed guidance on staffing levels leave overworked and underpaid carers suffering attacks and fatigue alone. For the UK not to have legal safe staffing levels in care is a scandalous dereliction of duty to both care workers and our loved ones they care for.”
The Mirror has launched the Fair Care for All campaign calling for social care to be properly staffed and funded. The Government has promised to establish a new “National Care Service” but this has been delayed pending a national review. It comes after successive governments ditched or delayed plans to reform the thorny issue of how to fund social care.
Analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows full-time unpaid carers in England have increased from 1.1 million in 2003/04 to 1.9 million in 2023/24. At the same time applications for formal social care support for our aging population went up by 15% but this has only been met with a 2.5% increase in those receiving it.
There were 335,759 full-time equivalent care workers in care homes in England last year, according to Skills for Care. GMB estimates that this would need to increase by 252,000 up to 587,647 to meet the 3:1 benchmark.
Tabling the motion calling for safe staffing in front of Labour delegates today, Ms Pitchford will say: “For us to hit the safe staffing levels mandated by other countries, we need more than 350,000 new care workers. That will never happen unless we raise care worker wages above the poverty pay they suffer today.”
After Labour won power last year it launched the Casey Review of adult social care to tackle the thorny issue of how the country should pay to care for its elderly.
The first phase is expected to be complete by 2026 and will focus on changes that can be made over the medium term within existing resources. The second phase will report by 2028 and will consider “the long-term transformation of adult social care”.
The Government has been criticised for delaying fundamental reform of social care until the next Parliament. Delivering the review’s recommendations may be dependent on Labour winning a second term in power.