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Faith Clarke

Nine out of every ten people in Wales say care workers need a pay rise after fighting the pandemic, a new poll by the trade union UNISON has shown. 

The survey of 1,021 people in Wales also found that 72% of people would support the creation of a National Care Service, similar to the NHS, which would be set-up to care for society’s elderly, disabled and vulnerable. 

Care workers are some of the lowest paid workers in Wales – with the majority typically earning the national minimum wage – but if anything, the pandemic has illustrated that carers are also some of society’s most vital workers. For years they have been neglected at all levels of government. 

The research was carried out by Savanta ComRes poll and was commissioned by the public services union UNISON. It showed that 90% of participants thought that Wales’ care workforce – which is largely female – should be paid a higher wage of at least £9.50 or more, which is the amount specified by the independent Living Wage Foundation.

This came as no surprise to care worker Pat Jones, who said the pandemic drew attention to “how many care workers struggle with in-work poverty because of the very low wages paid.

“It struck a chord with people that if we are providing a vital service caring for loved ones, there should be much more investment in us and in high quality care,” she added.

Most care workers in Wales earn only the national minimum wage, which increased on 1 April to £8.91 per hour. 76% of participants in the Savanta poll said that the minimum wage – despite its increase – was still “too low” for care workers. 

But the low pay many care workers receive for their vital role in caring for the most vulnerable people in society is only the tip of the iceberg. UNISON describes the care sector as being “in crisis.” 

Ahead of the Senedd elections in May, the trade union has prioritised the establishment of a National Care Service for Wales in its campaign.

While social care was in a precarious position before Covid-19 due to incessant underfunding and workforce shortages, the pandemic brought these issues to the fore. 

Since the onset of the pandemic, the care sector has seen a failure in the supply and distribution of PPE for care staff; a lack of available testing; a distressingly high death rate of those in residential care, and a refusal of employers to pay staff sick pay when isolating or off work due to Covid. 

The impacts of these issues are still being felt in care homes in Wales and England a year after Covid care home deaths peaked, with the BBC reporting that many in the sector felt their plight was ignored until it was too late. There are also increasing calls for a public inquiry.

On Easter Sunday 2020, 1,300 care residents died in England and Wales, and 495 of these died with Covid. Not only was this the highest number of care home deaths during the pandemic, but this figure was nearly three times the number of care home deaths on the same day in 2019.

A Wales Online investigation found that a failure in political leadership led to hundreds of care home patients dying and staff getting infected. Shockingly, it wasn’t until April 29th 2020 – over a month into the pandemic – that people being discharged from hospitals into care homes were routinely tested for Covid. “In that time,” the investigation notes, “1,097 patients potentially carrying the deadly virus were discharged into the most vulnerable of communities without a test.” 

According to UNISON, only a National Care Service for Wales could provide the “co-ordination and investment required” to dramatically improve standards for care workers and service users alike. 

“People are waking up to the fact the UK has a care service ‘on the cheap’, where thousands of mainly female care workers are deprived of the fair wages they deserve and struggle to make ends meet,” said UNISON Cymru Wales regional secretary, Karen Loughlin. 

“Care workers in the private sector generally receive little or no sick pay and the enhancements for unsocial hours working are much lower than if they were employed directly by councils.

“Care workers aren’t valued in the same way as NHS staff and there must be a complete overhaul of the care sector. UNISON is calling for a National Care Service for Wales which puts dignity and respect for clients and staff at its heart.”

The union is calling for Member of Senedd (MS) candidates to commit to the principles of National Care Service Wales, which would see standard employment contracts drawn up for all care work – ensuring sick pay, contracted hours and pay for all hours on duty, including ‘sleep ins,’ time spent traveling, and any continued professional development; as well as full funding provision, collective bargaining and trade union representation throughout the sector.

Despite the pandemic, the issue of care has not featured high on the agenda in the Welsh election, although is discussed in party manifestos. 

Plaid Cymru have pledged to form a commission which would work on the creation of what they describe would be a “seamless” health and social care service, seen as a National Care Service, with care being free at the point of need. They have pledged a minimum wage of £10 an hour for care workers. 

In their manifesto, Welsh Labour have said they too will deliver pay rises but want to work at a Westminster level when it comes to the sector as a whole by pursuing “a sustainable UK solution so that care is free for all at the point of need.” 

It is unclear how this would work with a Tory government in office, one which has brought in swinging cuts to the service and its workforce since 2011. The Labour government in Wales has also overseen an overall transfer of care homes away from the public sector into the charity and private sector, and has passed down damaging cuts. Underfunding is something Plaid Cymru have also been accused of at local authority level. 

Meanwhile, the Conservatives’ manifesto for the Welsh elections tries to ignore the party’s dismal record on the issue. They say they they want to “develop a plan for sustainable social care” in Wales and calls for a minimum wage of £10 per hour for care workers. But this is rich coming from the party of austerity, which drained huge sums of money from the care sector and its workers in order to pay for the banking crisis. 

The Tories at UK level – who have most control when it comes to public spending – have driven the wholescale privatisation of the care sector that has left it in crisis, whilst at the same time giving tax breaks to private care providers. The system has been made grossly unequal as a result, with the poorest of older people denied dignity and a basic levels of care. 

UNISON is now calling for a complete overhaul of the care sector in Wales, towards public ownership and accountability, which is essential to ensure it is never again rendered as vulnerable as it was at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

But to say care workers require higher wages is surely the very least politicians can offer, when the care sector is so vital in protecting and caring for those who are most vulnerable to Covid-19.