Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made on implementing the £500 million fair pay agreement for adult social care workers.

The consultation on the design of the Fair Pay Agreement process has now closed, however the Easy Read version remains open until 6 March to ensure everyone has the opportunity to contribute. We are analysing the responses and will set out our formal response in due course.

We expect regulations establishing the negotiating body, bringing together employer and employee representatives, will be laid in 2026. We expect negotiations will be held in 2027. Once an agreement on how the funding should be spent has been reached, the Fair Pay Agreement will be implemented in 2028.