Developing a fair pay framework for adult social care

The Government is consulting on the establishment of Adult Social Care Negotiating Body for England. It is seeking views on how this body could be set up to “successfully create fair pay agreements and how the voice of workers and employers in the sector could be represented”. Consultation closes on 16 January 2026.

Background and timings

Establishing a new framework for creating better pay and conditions in the adult social care sector has long been a policy of the Labour Party.

This consultation builds on the 10 pages of the Employment Rights Bill (likely to become an Act next month) which sketches the outline of this framework and provides the necessary powers to make secondary legislation to fill in the detail. This consultation is about the body which will operate in England. The Bill also provides for similar bodies to be created in Wales and in Scotland.

The Government has already committed to bringing the necessary regulations into force in October 2026. This consultation envisages that negotiations will start the following autumn, with a view to the first fair pay agreement being ratified by April 2028.

Funding

The consultation acknowledges the significant public investment in adult social care which will be required. In order to balance the need for greater pay in the sector with the potential cost to taxpayers, it proposes giving the ASC Negotiating Body a “cost envelope” at the start of the negotiations which will “set out the maximum funding available to councils to cover increased costs resulting from the fair pay agreement.”

The consultation doesn’t commit to the amount of the cost envelope but does explain that £500 million has been “earmarked” for improving pay and terms and conditions in the sector. This is a relatively modest sum – equivalent to around £500 for each directly employed adult care worker (using data for 2023/2024 from the King’s fund).

What does the consultation cover?

Six areas are covered in the consultation as follows:

• Establishment and membership: this section suggests that the new body should be set up as an advisory non-departmental public body with a chair and secretariat. It proposes that it should have an equal number of seats for worker and employer representatives. Local authorities would have a “clear role” in the fair pay agreement process.
• Negotiation process: the consultation explores how each round of negotiations would be triggered and how the timelines after that would work. It suggests that around 6 months should be allowed for negotiations, leaving six months for implementation.
• Coverage and remit: this section explores which categories of workers should be included and which matters should be within the scope of negotiations, in addition to pay and conditions. Self-employed workers will not be included, but it is proposed that agency and bank staff will be. The consultation seeks views on whether workers covered by other bargaining frameworks (such as NHS and Local Authority staff) should be covered. In terms of remit, the consultation asks whether “wider employment matters” such as access to training should be within scope.
• Dispute resolution: views are sought on what should be classed as a dispute, how the dispute resolution process should be triggered and who should be involved.
• Implementation: this section explains the design of the process for implementing any agreement reached by the new negotiating body. This includes a review by the Secretary of State to check affordability and ratification by Parliament. It seeks views on what the associated guidance should cover.
• Enforcement: Once ratified, a pay award will be incorporated into each care worker’s contract of employment. It will then become enforceable in the broadly the same way the National Minimum Wage. The consultation explains, but does not seek views, on how the enforcement process will work.

Conclusion

The consultation recognises that in the run up to the first fair pay agreement, “providers and commissioners will need time, support and guidance”. The assumption is that the ambitions for the first agreement will be relatively limited.

In the longer term much will depend on the funding settlement for the sector and long-awaited re-shaping of the options for individuals to fund their care costs. But at the very least, the new body, if set up correctly, could become a valuable advocate for the funding and other needs of what has long been a relatively neglected sector.