Homecare workers need secure income, not just a higher hourly rate

The Homecare Association, representing c. 2,100 homecare providers across the UK, welcomes Skills for Care's annual workforce report and calls on the Government to act on the things within its control: how the state buys homecare, what it pays, and whether the Fair Pay Agreement is properly funded.

Skills for Care's report, The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England 2026, shows that homecare is now the largest part of adult social care, with 725,000 filled posts. The number of regulated homecare services has grown by almost two-thirds since 2018/19, as councils and the NHS seek to support more people at home.

Yet homecare remains the hardest service to staff. Its vacancy rate of 8.7% is more than double that of residential care (3.8%). Fewer local people are joining care than leaving it: around 140,000 British people started direct care roles in the independent sector last year, while 175,000 left. In a January 2026 Homecare Association survey, 28% of providers typically received no suitable local applicants at all, and a further 40% received only one or two.

The report shows why. Real pay growth for care workers slowed to just 1.6% in the year to March 2026, down from 6.3% the year before. Median pay of £12.60 an hour was only 39p above the National Living Wage, compared with 56p a year earlier, and 27% of care workers were paid at or within 10p of the legal minimum. A care worker with five years' experience earns, on average, just 12p an hour more than a new starter, even though 46% of direct care workers now carry out delegated healthcare tasks. Some 44% of homecare careworkers are on zero-hours contracts.

Dr Jane Townson OBE, Chief Executive of the Homecare Association, said:

"Skills for Care's data are invaluable, and they tell a clear story. Homecare is growing because that is where people want to receive care, but we are not yet creating the conditions for local people to choose it, stay in it and build a career in it."

"Careworkers do not pay their rent with an hourly rate. They pay it with their total income, week after week. What matters is whether they can rely on enough paid hours, at a fair rate, across their whole working day. Too often, they cannot."

"Many councils and NHS bodies buy homecare by the minute, pay only for time spent in people's homes, spread work thinly across many providers and guarantee no volume at all. In one provider's payroll records, careworkers were expected to be available for up to 98 hours in a week to deliver 39 paid contact hours. A higher headline rate does nothing for a worker in that position. A provider cannot guarantee its careworkers hours that nobody guarantees to it."

The Homecare Association's Minimum Price for Homecare in England for 2026/27 is £34.42 an hour, the minimum needed to pay careworkers lawfully and run a safe, regulated service. Yet the average council fee rate is £25.05, according to ADASS. The Association's research found that 29% of councils and Health and Social Care Trusts paid average rates below even the direct cost of employing a careworker at the National Living Wage, and 61% bought no more than 500 hours a week per provider, a third or less of what is needed for efficient operation.

Where commissioners concentrate work in neighbourhoods and providers pay careworkers for whole rounds, the results are striking. In Leeds, the neighbourhood block-pay model highlighted by Skills for Care raised the share of careworkers' paid time spent with people from 64% to 84%, and average length of service rose by 27%.

"The Employment Rights Act and the Fair Pay Agreement are welcome. But to raise homecare pay to the equivalent of NHS Band 3 sustainably, providers would need around £3.25 billion across UK homecare, and the Government has so far committed £500 million to the Fair Pay Agreement. If guaranteed hours and higher pay arrive while the state still buys care by the minute and below cost, providers will acquire new duties without the secure income needed to meet them. The likely result is more contracts handed back and less care available, not better jobs."

"2028 is the year the first Fair Pay Agreement is due. That gives the Government two years to fix commissioning, set a fair price and fund the pay rise properly, so that homecare can recruit and keep the local workforce it needs. We should also keep our word to the sponsored careworkers already here, who are holding services together today. If we want different outcomes, we must change what the state buys."

What needs to happen

To strengthen the homecare workforce, the Homecare Association is calling on the Government to:

1. Make secure income the goal, not just a higher hourly rate. Careworkers should be paid for whole working rounds, from the start of their working day to the end, including travel, reasonable waiting time and training.
2. End purchasing by the minute. Publish model payment clauses and commissioning guidance now, so councils and NHS bodies fund planned capacity, protect income during hospital stays and cancellations, and pay fairly for short and rural visits.
3. Commission by neighbourhood. Give providers enough predictable local work to build compact rounds, offer guaranteed hours and maintain continuity for the people they support.
4. Set a fair price floor. Introduce a National Contract for Care Services with a transparent minimum price, based on an agreed costing method such as the Minimum Price for Homecare, below which public bodies cannot buy regulated care, matched by funding for councils and ICBs.
5. Fully fund the Fair Pay Agreement and set out the funding now. Give councils and NHS bodies time to plan fee rates before 2028, and make sure the agreement rewards experience and the skills involved in delegated healthcare.
6. Publish a homecare workforce plan with milestones to 2028. Set measurable recruitment and retention goals and provide practical support for local recruitment, including funded driving lessons and priority driving tests for new homecare workers, led by DHSC with a named senior responsible owner.
7. Keep our word to sponsored careworkers already here. Confirm that careworkers already in the UK will keep a five-year route to settlement, so experienced staff stay while the local workforce grows.

"Skills for Care is right that workforce investment and quality improvement are two sides of the same coin. Secure, decent work for careworkers means continuity and better care for the people they support. The tools are within reach. What we need now is the will to use them."

ENDS

Notes to editors

• Skills for Care (2026). The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England, 2026. Homecare figures: 725,000 filled posts (including posts working for direct payment recipients); vacancy rate 8.7% (residential care 3.8%); 44% of domiciliary care workers on zero-hours contracts. Pay figures refer to independent sector care workers and support workers as at March 2026; comparisons with the previous year draw on the 2025 edition. British starters and leavers are estimates for direct care roles in the independent sector. Available at www.skillsforcare.org.uk/stateof
• Homecare Association (September 2026). Homecare: commissioning is the key to quality, fair work and better outcomes.
• The Homecare Association surveyed 108 homecare providers, employing around 15,000 careworkers, in January 2026. Figures are providers' reported experiences and are not nationally representative estimates.
• The Homecare Association's Minimum Price for Homecare for England, 2026/27 is £34.42 per hour, including £26.17 per hour in direct careworker employment costs at the National Living Wage.
• ADASS Spring Survey 2026: average fee rate for an hour of homecare £25.05. www.adass.org.uk/documents/adass-spring-survey-2026/
• Homecare Association (2025). The Homecare Deficit 2025. www.homecareassociation.org.uk/resource/the-homecare-deficit-2025.html
• The Government has committed £500 million to the first year of the Fair Pay Agreement, which is expected to come into force in 2028.
• The Homecare Association's response to the earned settlement consultation recommended keeping the five-year route to settlement for care workers.
• The Homecare Association is the UK’s leading membership body for homecare providers, representing more than 2,100 providers. It represents the homecare sector at national level, including with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Parliament.
• E-mail: [email protected]
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