2025 Care Worker £500 Million Fair Pay Announcement

On September 30th, 2025, the UK government announced the implementation of a fair pay agreement for care workers. The investment stands at £500 million and will include a new body to negotiate changes to pay and terms and conditions, including involvement of both trade unions and employers.  

This is being put into place with the goal of improving recruitment and retention within the care sector. It aims to give staff better recognition for important work, meaning that by 2028 workers should expect to see boosted wages.  

Concerns with Fair Pay Announcement  

Prominent individuals and businesses within the social care sector have voiced concerns regarding this announcement, as well as expressed gratitude for progress in the recognition of social care’s importance. This has been highlighted in publications by Health Care Management. 

The Chief Executive of NHS Employers made a comment that this fair pay agreement is a positive next step in ensuring that there is investment in the social care workforce.  There have been other positives seen for the agreement, as it highlights real recognition in the sector, which is desperately needed to bring lasting change for workers.  

Martin Green, Care England’s Chief Executive, also made a statement regarding this. He noted how the agreement represents long-awaited acknowledgement of care work as a skilled profession. 

Meanwhile, Policy Fellow, Lucinda Allen, from The Health Foundation, has noted a need for more. 

“Today’s announcement of £500m funding for the first Fair Pay Agreement in social care in England will not be enough to provide a meaningful boost in staff pay. Shared evenly between the 1.5 million workers in the sector, it could amount to roughly 20p extra per hour each.” 

 Martin Green also noted how the announcement does “little to deliver meaningful change for workers”. He went on to say how, with the funding so slight, it is hard to see how providers will be able to attract or retain the staff desperately needed, which technically undermines the whole purpose of the agreement.  The 

Director of Research from the Nuffield Trust had further elaborated on the funding complications around the agreement. 

“This extra £500 million, already announced at June’s Spending review, is not new, will not arrive until 2028, and will need to come from funds already needed to keep social care afloat and meet the needs of the people who rely on it. The spending pressures cannot be overstated: the extra needed this year for additional employers’ national insurance contributions more than wipes out this £500m.”  

The concerns of those within the sector are valid and understandable, with such a high quantity of staff in this sector in need of a pay increase and recognition to maintain the current standard of care. 

Immigration’s Part to Play 

Alongside the Fair Pay Agreement is part of the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body development. This will include employers and trade unions across the sector and will be established in 2026, with the Fair Pay Agreement coming into play in 2028. Statements have been made regarding the critical importance that costs related to the FPA will need to be funded by the central government, and not by the local councils, who are already under immense financial strain. Director of Adult Social Services, Jess McGregor, stated that “the last annual survey showed councils are overspending on adult social care, so they cannot fund increases in pay and foot the bill for the FPA”.  

That being said, pay is a critical area of importance for the improvement of social care. With the earlier immigration publication this year Restoring Control Over the Immigration System the care sector is looking at changes regarding migrant workers, which looks to minimise the number of potential hires available.  Since 22nd July 2025, no social care visas have been issued to new applicants. Care homes and providers can therefore no longer sponsor new staff from overseas.  

There is a transition period in place until 2028 that allows for visa extension for those already working in the UK, and care providers can sponsor overseas care workers who are in the UK on a different visa, such as the graduate visa. However, in order for this to be an eligible route, the individual must have already been working as a care worker for a minimum of 3 months. The ability for care providers to hire overseas workers from other visas and for care workers to extend their visas ends on July 22nd, 2028. 

In 2023, the number of visas issued for social care workers was 106,000, in comparison to 118,000 skilled worker visas in other sectors. This shows just how significantly the UK care sector relies upon migrant workers. The removal of the opportunity to sponsor migrant care workers is to encourage more UK national hires.  

The FPA coming into play may help to attract a few more workers into the sector. Yet, a significantly higher salary increase would be required to attract more people into the sector to pursue it as a career to the extent required to make up for a reduction in overseas workers. 

Necessary Changes to Optimise Social Care 

Although the FPA is a step in the right direction for adults’ social care, there is much still that needs to be done to really implement the changes needed for the sector to thrive. From March to April 2025, a survey was conducted by the Department of Health and Social Care and completed by CQC (Care Quality Commission), looking at adult social care workforce skills. The survey aimed to investigate the perceptions of skills needed within care settings by employers, whether these skill needs were being met and the impact of skills gaps.  

One of the questions asked by the survey was about those who believed there were barriers that stopped investment in skill development for the current workforce; 81.8% said that the cost of training was a barrier. 

Skills training is not just important for upskilling and maintaining an up-to-date workforce, but it is also critical for attracting people into the workforce with the prospect of having ‘a ladder to climb’ in their career. Offering career advancement opportunities through skills development and training can help people turn their job into a long-term career. This increases employee retention and job attractiveness. 

As part of the announcement of the FPA, there has been a central government pledge to fund training, a universal career structure, and qualifications to help care workers progress and to ensure a high-quality delivery across England. However, the exact methods of applying these goals to the sector have not yet been made clear. Additionally, there is over £4 billion in additional funding for adult social care planned by 2028-2029, but whether this will be applied to pay increases or wider sector improvements is unclear. 

The sector needs reformation; however, one of the most critical areas of focus is on employee recognition, retention and hiring. In a previous survey conducted by CQC in 2024, regarding the workforce in adult social care. It found that 71% of provider locations reported workforce recruitment as challenging, with 37% concerned about sustaining service delivery levels in the future. Respondents said that the primary challenge for retention and recruitment alike was that there is better pay outside the adult social care sector. 

The average salary for a care worker in the UK is £13.55 as of September 2025, according to indeed.com, with many care workers on the National Minimum Wage. Salaries do vary depending on the type of care delivered and the location, validating the importance of a pay increase to provide the sector with the needed boost. 

Care workers are critical to the care sector and provide essential support to those in need. Recognition and a significant pay increase are pivotal to a sector-wide reformation. Whether the plans for the FPA and introduction of a Negotiating Body will have the desired effect on the sector is yet to be seen. While the announcement came in September 2025, professionals in Adult Social Care will have to wait until 2028 to bear any fruits of this announcement. 

How Can CareCubed Help? 

While adult social care awaits the impacts of the FPA, providers and local authorities can benefit from the use of CareCubed. CareCubed brings transparency about how much care costs to the table to encourage discussions and understanding about care. It is a comprehensive benchmarking solution that makes use of reliable data that helps providers evidence care requirements on a needs-based basis for those receiving care. Local authorities can gain understanding and obtain transparency.  

CareCubed is a tool that can help local authorities and providers manage their budgets while providing high-quality care to those in need. While the sector awaits the inception of the FPA, CareCubed can be a useful cost of care tool to assist collaboration and ensure best practice.  

Contact us at carecubed.org to book a demo and find out more today.