Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of Community Integrated Care's report entitled The Caring Economy – Unfair To Care 2025, published on 12 March 2025.

We appreciate the work undertaken and the findings presented in the Unfair to Care 2025 report. We are committed to supporting adult social care workers, turning the page on decades of low pay and insecurity. That is why we plan to introduce the first ever Fair Pay Agreement in 2028, backed by £500 million of funding to improve pay and conditions for the adult social care workforce.

The Impact Assessment for the Employment Rights Bill, published in October 2024, provides an initial, indicative assessment of the impacts that could result from primary legislation. This represents the best estimate for the likely impacts of a Fair Pay Agreement given the current stage of policy development.

The Spending Review 2025 allows for over £4 billion in additional funding available for ASC in 2028-29 compared to 2025-26. This includes other sources of income available to support adult social care, additional grant funding and an increase in the National Health Service’s contribution to adult social care via the Better Care Fund. This £4 billion increase includes £500 million to begin implementing the Fair Pay Agreement in 2028-29.