Fair Pay Agreement Resources & Guidance

You can find below links to resources and guidance on matters relating to the government’s proposed Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) for the adult social care sector. The proposed legislation will give the Secretary of State for Business and Trade powers to form a negotiating body to create a legally binding sector minimum wage. As the exact form this negotiating body will take has not yet been decided, this page will be updated as more information is released.

Care England Summary Document (July 2024)

We have created a report on the basics of the fair pay agreement, examples of it in practice in other countries, and what it might mean for providers in the document linked below. An August blog post from the Nuffield Trust also outlines how the fair pay agreements differ where they have been implemented in other countries, which you can read here. It’s thought that the English Fair Pay Agreement will most closely resemble the Kiwi model (which was repealed by the incoming National government there) in terms of its legislative basis.

Whilst the agreement will no doubt be a large part of the solution to the recruitment and retention crisis in social care and benefit the workforce, the Government must make sure that the funding to support such a pay agreement is in place (as was the case in New Zealand). Otherwise, the fair pay agreement might be a non-starter and will place the sector, along with its jobs, in further jeopardy.

Click here to see our full explainer document

Government Factsheet on the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body

This government factsheet was published by the department to provide a concise explanation on what issues the FPA seeks to address, key stats, and the proposed statutory basis for an Adult Social Care Negotiating Body.

Click here to see the factsheet (links to gov.uk)

Summary of the Government’s Impact Assessment

The Government released a 30-page impact assessment of the policy in October 2024. Community Care wrote the article linked below with an explainer of the key points. Headline parts of the impact assessment are that the government expect the higher costs to be borne by local authorities and self-funders. It’s expected that 40% of the costs of increased wages will be recovered by the Treasury in the increased tax revenue and reduced welfare expenditure. This is before factors like a potential reduction in NHS spending and reduced recruitment costs for the sector are factored in, the scale of which is uncertain.

Unsurprisingly, the projected impact on providers has been assessed to be negative as labour costs are increased, and the government believe the “scope […] to respond to these costs is limited”. They also state it could lead to some providers leaving the market if the extra costs are not offset by increased funding from the Treasury and local authorities.

A link to the Community Care article is here: