Two prominent regional leaders have joined a nationwide campaign advocating for improved wages within the adult social care sector.
Andy Burnham and Kim McGuinness have signed an open letter to the Health Secretary requesting assurances that care workers receive compensation in line with the independently calculated living wage rate. This voluntary benchmark currently stands at £13.45 per hour nationally and £14.80 in the capital.
Whilst care workers in Scotland and Wales already benefit from this wage level, many employees in England’s care sector do not. The Health Secretary recently announced a £500 million package to increase care worker salaries from 2028, however the regional leaders have expressed concern that delaying improvements could worsen existing workforce challenges.
Research from a leading policy think tank indicated that approximately 400,000 care workers in England—representing 43% of the workforce—received less than the voluntary living wage rate.
The correspondence, coordinated by two prominent campaign organisations, emphasises the vital role played by care workers and suggests that better remuneration could address recruitment difficulties, improve staff retention, and ease pressure on health services.
The regional leaders stated in their correspondence: “Raising wages for over 400,000 care workers would strengthen workforce stability and alleviate strain on health services.”
Although new employment legislation will establish mechanisms for negotiated pay agreements, these provisions may not come into effect until 2028.
The regional leaders contend that immediate action is necessary, citing analysis suggesting that implementing the voluntary living wage rate would require £330 million—under 2% of the previous year’s social care expenditure.
The letter also requests that compensation should cover all working hours, including overnight duties and travel time between appointments.
The letter can be seen here https://citizensuk.contentfiles.net/media/documents/real_LW_for_Social_Care_Letter.pdf
Adult Social Care Nurse Prescribing Pilot Launched
Can we take pic from here if not something similar https://socialcare.blog.gov.uk/2025/10/16/adult-social-care-nurse-prescribing-pilot/
DHSC has made £461,000 available for the Adult Social Care (ASC) Nurse Prescribing Pilot, to fund nurses across the country to undertake an Nursing and Midwifery Council (NCM) approved prescribing qualification. This will qualify them to prescribe medicines within their ASC setting and provide nurses with credits towards the advanced practice Masters.
Following an Expression of Interest process, we have selected the following 6 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to take part in this pilot:
Bedfordshire, Luton, Milton Keynes
Cheshire and Merseyside in collaboration with Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria
Coventry and Warwickshire
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire in collaboration with Derby and Derbyshire
South Yorkshire
Upskilling nurses in ASC is fundamental to improving practice, achieving better outcomes for the people we support and reducing avoidable hospital admissions. I am delighted that we received a fantastic response from ICBs to take part in the Pilot. The calibre of applications was outstanding, and I am very much looking forward to working closely with the six ICB Chief Nurses to help make this pilot a success.
Throughout the pilot, we will be measuring the impact of increasing the number of nurses with prescribing qualifications on the sector and whether this leads to improved outcomes for those being cared for, supports safe discharge, and contributes towards addressing capacity issues, by freeing up clinicians’ time and streamlining care delivery.
This initiative marks an important milestone on the journey towards advanced practice in social care nursing. It aligns with the NMC work on Advance Practice and the work of the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing on standards for social care nursing.
This pilot follows Skills for Care’s undergraduate placement strategy for social care nursing published in July, funded by DHSC. This strategy is designed to provide students with placements in social care to enhance their knowledge and clinical skills in a supportive environment. By embedding learning in practice we’re helping to shape a nursing workforce that is better informed, highly skilled and truly person-centred. At the same time, we are encouraging students and professionals alike to see social care as a rewarding area of specialist practice.
This pilot sits alongside a series of measures the government has announced to support the strengthening of a professionalised social care workforce and provide more opportunities for learning and development.
If successful, the pilot could pave the way for more adult social care nurses across the country to be offered the qualification, recognising the critical role they will play in the delivery of neighbourhood health services.
