Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the costs of aligning the pay of NHS and social care workers.

The majority of social care in England is delivered by private companies. It is a matter for those employers to determine the rate of pay for their staff, including social care workers. The National Minimum Wage is the legal minimum employers must pay their workers. In addition, local authorities, as commissioners of adult social care were given market shaping duties by the Care Act 2014 and must work with care providers to determine a fair rate of pay for fair work based on local market conditions.

The relative levels of pay in the National Health Service and social care are kept under frequent review.