Leaders call for winter bonus for social care staff

Care leaders are calling on the government to award and fund a £1,000 bonus over the winter period for social care workers in England.

The bonus would recognise the loyalty and dedication of care workers through the Covid-19 pandemic and would help stem the loss of skilled and experienced staff to other types of work.

The call for the £1,000 bonus is being made by ADASS (the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services) in response to reports from directors across England of care services struggling or breaking down because of staff shortages.

There are about 1.5 million jobs in social care in England, but at least 105,000 of them are vacant. The cost of a one-off £1,000 bonus would therefore be about £1.4 billion gross, but the Treasury would recoup tax and national insurance.

Like every other employee, care workers will be paying the new health and social care levy taking effect next April – a cost of about £140 a year – but social care will receive only £5.4 billion of the £36 billion that the levy will raise over its first three years.

Stephen Chandler, ADASS president, said: “We are facing a perfect storm with staff quitting, family carers under immense strain, the NHS struggling, care providers going out of business and people being left without care and support. Courageous and compassionate people working in social care are quitting faster than they can be recruited and people who need support to live decent lives are waiting longer for help and getting less of it.”
 
“Paying a £1,000 bonus to care workers over the winter would show that we prize their skills and dedication as a society. It would send a strong signal to people that care work is a career that is respected and is going to be properly rewarded in future. Unlike their counterparts in the rest of the UK, care workers in England have not been paid any government bonus for working through the pandemic.”