The National Care Forum (NCF) – the leading association for not-for-profit social care has responded to the publication of the Skills for Care report, Pay in the adult social care sector in England as at December 2025.
Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of the National Care Forum commented: “We welcome the publication of Skills for Care’s latest “Pay in the adult social care sector” report. The data that Skills for Care collect and publish remains the most comprehensive and authoritative source of workforce evidence in adult social care. The analysis released today provides vital insight that will help inform and shape our thinking as we move toward implementing a Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) for the sector. High quality workforce intelligence such as this is essential for designing a fair, deliverable, and properly targeted system of pay, progression, and recognition across adult social care.
“The findings in today’s report are stark. Care workers received their lowest average percentage pay rise in six years, and experienced care workers earn barely more than new care workers; this is unsustainable. Urgent action is needed.
“The government’s Fair Pay Agreement offers a significant opportunity to take a different approach by setting out a consistent, fair, and transparent pay framework. This opportunity will only be realised if the FPA is backed by long-term funding, robust infrastructure, and immediate interim measures that support providers during the transition. We must also recognise that ongoing pressures, including National Insurance Contribution increases and successive rises in the NLW are already undermining the ambitions of ethical providers fighting to sustain commitments to Real Living Wage and enhanced terms and conditions that recognise the skills and expertise of the workforce.
“We need government to work with the sector to support activity to deliver a sustainable workforce plan that ensures we have the right people, with the right skills, in place for the future. The measures contained within the workforce strategy collectively created by a range of social care organisations, including Skills for Care and the National Care Forum, offer a solid foundation that can be built upon.
“We need new, future focussed approaches that embrace technology, reflect the evolving nature of care and support work and people’s changing expectations about the care and support they need, and create genuine career structures that enable people to progress, specialise, and be properly rewarded. The not-for-profit social care and support sector and the National Care Forum stand ready to work with colleagues across the sector and government to help realise these goals.”
