Social Care and Community Integrated Care’s Unfair to Care Report 2026

That this House acknowledges that more urgent action is needed to support social care in this country, that social care affects us all and that without truly fixing social care we won’t succeed in fixing healthcare; notes with concern and alarm that the Government’s Health Bill does not include any measures to improve or address social care; urges this Government to close the significant 28.6% pay gap between social care and equivalent roles in Band 3 health so that social care can build a stable and consistent workforce to support those who need care; celebrates and recognises that the social care workforce is highly skilled with multi-faceted and varied roles that deserve proper recognition through better pay and better designed formalised professional pathways; further notes with alarm and serious concern that many of the workforce are forced to use food banks and secure additional employment just to get by; also notes that low pay fuels a high 28.5% turnover affecting the continuity and quality of care, and that the social care vacancy rate is three times higher at 7% than the UK wide vacancy rate at 2.3%; further urges this Government to act now and to streamline and improve funding to be more sustainable, to develop the social care pathway to make it more fluid and adaptable to reflect the true scope and variability of roles, and to properly invest in recruitment, retention and training.