2026 is a crossroads for social care. The government’s talk of a fair pay agreement is everywhere, but for the 1.5 million people who keep this sector running, talk is cheap. Martin Boyce, SeeAbility’s Executive Director of People, speaks candidly about what it will really take for these colleagues to be valued and rewarded for their work - work that is essential, skilled, and all too often invisible.

Fair Pay agreement – From rhetoric to reality

Let’s not dress it up: everyone knows adult social care colleagues deserve better. The Labour party promised a national agreement on pay, a ‘National Care Service’ and now there’s a plan for a negotiating body to set a minimum pay floor. It sounds good on paper. But the government’s consultation dodges the real question: what is fair pay for this work? Instead, they’ve put £500 million on the table. That’s about 16p an hour extra, if you do the maths. 

It’s not enough. It’s not even close to enough.

And it gets tougher. The government expects providers to pick up the slack, but unless councils (who commission most care) actually build these rates into their fees, it’s just not possible. For SeeAbility, like most charities, nearly every penny comes from those commissioned fees. For years, we’ve been told to do more for less, with pay stuck at the minimum ‘living’ wage. The result? Skilled, dedicated people are asked to carry more and more, for less and less.

Pay progression is broken. Skills for Care found that someone with five years’ experience earns just 7p an hour more than someone with one year. That’s not how you keep expertise or reward the people who stick around and build trust with those they support. The consultation talks about pay differentials, but not about how any of this will actually be funded. 

Even the £500 million isn’t ringfenced, it could disappear into other priorities. If this money is for pay, it must be used for pay. And everyone, commissioners and providers, must be held to account to make sure it reaches the people doing the work.

There’s a lot to pick through in the consultation, but the bottom line is this: the government needs to listen, not just to the sector, but to the people who do the job, day in, day out.

What next?

Right now, we’re doing everything we can for our 1,000+ colleagues who show up, every single day, and make a difference. Recruitment, retention, and reward aren’t just words, they’re survival. If we can’t keep good people, the whole system suffers.

The government will keep talking about economic growth and jobs. But here’s the reality: adult social care is worth £78 billion to the economy and employs more people than the NHS. Yet, we’re still fighting the idea that social care is a drain, not an investment. We need to call out that myth, and push back against the negative headlines. Social care should be a career people are proud to choose, a job that matters, because it does.

At SeeAbility, our charity is defined by the people who turn up, rain or shine, early mornings, late nights because they care. We pay highly competitively because this work is tough, skilled, and deserves proper recognition. We invest in real, hands-on training and development because our colleagues face unpredictable, human challenges every day, far beyond any job description. 

Wellbeing here isn’t a buzzword; it’s about making sure people have the backup, flexibility, and respect they need to keep going, especially when the days are long and the situations are tough. Our benefits aren’t generic, they’re shaped by what our colleagues tell us matters most, so we can keep hold of the people who make a difference, and so they can keep changing lives, one person at a time.

Read more:

Fair pay agreement process in adult social care – consultation document – GOV.UK 

Skills for Care State of the Adult Social Care Workforce report 2025