SOCIAL care staff remain the poor relations of the healthcare family after their colleagues got a pay boost, campaigners have said.
The Independent Care Group is calling for better sector funding so that staff get pay parity with the NHS.
More than 27,000 workers who do NHS work but are employed by non-NHS organisations are to get one-off payments of at least £1,600.
The ICG says it is unfair that due to under-funding of social care, staff who work in the independent sector providing care to older and vulnerable adults will not get a similar pay boost and it will make it harder to recruit into the sector.
Chair Mike Padgham said: “The payment to these staff is wholly deserved and we welcome the news that it is to be paid.
“But whichever way you look at it, it once again reinforces social care staff as poor relations in the healthcare sector.
“Thousands of nurses and care workers who work in social care, doing the same work, will not get the same pay increases as their counterparts doing NHS work and that isn’t right.
“It is unfair on staff doing the same job and will make it harder to recruit into social care as the disparity between our workforce and those benefiting from NHS pay continues to grow. At a time when we already have 152,000 vacancies in the social care sector, that is not going to be helpful.”
He said the Government had to better fund social care to close the disparity and tackle the workforce shortage.