Andy Burnham took office yesterday as the Prime Minister who first proposed a National Care Service, over 15 years ago. In his first speech he named social care among the big things politics has neglected and said he will not flinch from fixing it. The Care Workers' Charity welcomes that seriousness. A National Care Service would be one of the most significant reforms in a generation, but it cannot be built without the workforce that will deliver it.
That is the test we will hold this new government to. A care service is a promise of care for everyone who needs it, and that promise depends entirely on the people who provide it. Nearly half of care workers, 49%, were paid below the Real Living Wage in December 2025, according to Skills for Care’s Pay in the Adult Social Care Sector report, February 2026. A lasting service cannot be designed on a workforce that is walking out of the door.
The Care Workers' Charity's 2025 Wellbeing Survey of more than 2,000 care workers found that 72.06% do not feel financially secure, 57.4% named low hourly pay as the single biggest contributor, and 36.69% are actively considering leaving their roles. These are the people the National Care Service will rely on. Stabilising their pay and conditions now, and involving them in the design of what comes next, is not an optional extra. It is the foundation.
Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers' Charity, said:"There can be no National Care Service without the workforce that delivers it. We welcome the new Prime Minister's commitment to reform, and we ask him to move on it. Care workers have heard ambition before and welcomed it. What they need now is a timetable that does not stretch into the next decade, funding that reaches their pay packets, and a seat at the table where the service is designed.
Our own Wellbeing Survey found that 57.4% of care workers named low pay as the single biggest reason they do not feel financially secure. That insecurity does not stop at the bills they cannot pay. It reaches the homes and services where they deliver care, and it shapes the support the people we love receive. Bring the reform forward, fund it properly, involve care workers in the design, and the rest becomes possible. Leave them out, and it will not hold."
What needs to change
The Care Workers' Charity is calling on the new government, within its first 100 days, to:
- Name the workforce as a founding pillar of the National Care Service and co-produce the reform with care workers, through bodies such as the Care Worker Advisory Board.
- Bring forward both the Fair Pay Agreement and the Casey Commission, rather than leave care workers waiting until 2028 and reform on a timetable that runs into the next decade.
- Bring forward interim measures to support pay and financial security now, ahead of the Fair Pay Agreement taking effect.
- Fully fund the Fair Pay Agreement, including the career pathway and the pay differentials along it with the legislation and sustained, ringfenced funding needed to reach care workers' pay packets.
The Care Workers' Charity will continue to work with care workers, providers and partners across the sector to make sure the workforce is at the centre of this reform, not designed around it. We invite the Prime Minister and his team to meet us, and to hear directly from care workers through our Advisory Board.
