Care England calls for parity on pay for nurses working in social care

Nurses working in independent care homes should be given 'parity on pay', along with those working in the NHS, according to sector representatives.

Following the recent pay award for nurses in the NHS, Care England suggested that those working in independent care homes are not given the same priority by the Government.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “In addition to pay awards, providers are having to respond to the cost of rising dependency of nursing needs of residents. Additional costs come from the shortage of nurses, over which we have no control, meaning that recruiting nurses is a costly challenge along with increasing agency costs associated with rising nurse vacancies.

“The cost of employing nurses is rising with auto pension enrolment and other staff costs which must be met in order to retain our nurses and offer the best employment packages possible. This linked with the rising number of nursing hours needed to meet care needs mean that central government is not supporting our sector sufficiently."

Care England highlighted that whilst NHS providers will have the cost of the pay rise covered via the Treasury, care homes with nursing will not.

Care homes must either fund any nurse pay increases via Clinical Commission Group (CCG) contracts, or via Funded Nursing Care (FNC) from the Government. The body has warned ministers that a two per cent increase for 2018-19 will not allow care homes to match the pay awards for NHS nurses and would put "further pressure on already stretched providers".

According to Professor Green, the low FNC rate rise would only “exacerbate the recruitment and retention challenges our sector is currently facing”.

He added: “The nursing home sector is a vital part of our whole health and social care system and ensures that people, especially older people, are discharged promptly from hospital. However, the sector needs to be funded appropriately to do this and our nurses also deserve a funded pay settlement from government."

Care England has alerted the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Department for Health and Social Care that the FNC will not meet the pressure felt in the nursing home sector.