Below are notes taken by Sarah Woodhouse, Director for Policy and Influencing at VODG, from a recent briefing held by Skills for Care on the Fair Pay Agreement. Colleagues from the Department of Health and Social Care provided an update on work to date, the timeline for the consultation and secondary legislation, and ways to get involved.
VODG has a FPA sounding board, feedback from which has been shared as part of our engagement with DHSC via the Working Group and Task and Finish Group meetings.
If you have any queries about this work do get in touch. Along with our sounding board we are providing updates and opportunities to ask quetions through our HR and Finance Director networks.
Session Notes
- Questions were asked of delegates on sign up around awareness of the FPA and Employment Rights Bill (ERB) and confidence in talking about the FPA. Awareness was high but confidence in talking about the FPA was mixed.
- Timetable: The DHSC expect Royal Ascent of the ERB in the Autumn, aiming to publish the consultation on the FPA around October – likely to last for 12 weeks and include lots of engagement activity beyond the consultation document. After Christmas DHSC will consider responses and make final choices on design then lay secondary legislation. Unlikley to have a negotiating body up and running prior to the end of 2026.
- The consultation will seek views and to find out if DHSC has missed anything in its planning for a FPA and related bodies.
- Policy areas DHSC are working through at the moment:
- Scope (who should be in and out, what else should be included)
- Negotiating Body (what should this look like? appointment process (individuals or organisations), term time, what if someone leaves?)
- Dispute resolution (looking to other collective bargaining models for good practice)
- Compliance and enforcement (how do providers know what to do, whatever is agreed will be a legal right like the NMW so will be enforced)
- Aware this is happening in a very stretched sector so also considering funding that will be made available, impact across labour markets and how it fits with other reforms including Casey and National Care Service (at its hard standardising the system)
- What happens next? Providers can do nothing - ongoing engagement continues with the working group and t&f groups which VODG sits on and others are welcome to join. Otherwise organisations can get in touch with the FPA team with views: [email protected]
- Questions for DHSC:
- How are you considering the interactions between FPA policy and wider ASC reforms? – DHSC FPA team linked in with Casey and will feed in. FPA is an essential building block for a national care service – can’t have everyone on different pay. Down the line other things like training might come into negotiating body.
- How ae you considering the impact on self-funders? – being considered but more to come with the consultation and related engagement activity
- Reminder on timelines – consultations in the Autumn for 12 weeks, secondary legislation in 2026 after which the negotiating body will be set up.
- How will people with lived experience be involved with this? – happening through TLAP and some broader sessions happening like today’s with people who have lived experience + consultation in the Autumn.
- How will the FPA be enforced? – TBC. Balance needs to be right between workers and organisations being able to bring this forward.
- How will the FPA be funded? - TBC. Gov’t due to announce more on this ‘shortly’. £4bn announced in SR, when the consultation is published an impact assessment will also be published and will include more…
- How does the FPA interact with changes to international recruitment? - The FPA should help address recruitment and retention issues.
- Which stakeholders are involved in the Working Group and what other areas of social care are involved? – Care Provider Alliance members (including VODG), trade unions, local govt reps, set up to ‘allow enough people to sit in a room and function while trying to cover all providers’, trying to hear from as broad a range as possible.
- Who is the FPA targeted at? – Currently everybody across the whole sector. Scope will form part of the consultation.
- Will individual employers with DPs to pay PAs be included? – Nothing is nailed down yet in terms of design, scope etc. At the moment they are in scope as long as there’s a contract in place between the two.
- How can providers get involved in roundtable discussions? – Get in touch with the FPA team. More sessions being arranged.
- Anything more to share on task and finish groups? – they are looking at remit, scope etc. Not making decisions but sharing options and views, purpose has been to work through ideas to go into the consultation.
- How does the FPA link with the NMW/ NLW? Will it set pay rates as well as terms and conditions? – the negotiating body brings unions, providers, employers together to agree pay / conditions / other tbc. Might agree a rate higher than the NMW, negotiations might focus on flexible working, training, other rates… expectation is that pay will be part of the discussion but can’t say where it will land. What is negotiated will become law. Rose taking away how this interacts with London living wage.
- How have carers and carer support organisations been engaged with? DHSC reaching out to different parts of the sector – if not engaged with yet, email in.
- How long will secondary legislation drafting take? Any proposed implementation date? – Can’t say an exact implementation date as a lot has to happen first. Secondary legislation usually takes a couple of months, then laid etc so looking at likely looking at end of 2026 to have the detail of the negotiating body finalised.
- What can LA commissioners do to prepare locally for changes? – Currently feed in through LGA and ADASS.
- Is it intended to cover a range of roles? – Yes, the Bill says those working ‘mainly or wholly in social care’ – more detail will be in the consultation but currently all roles are in, including registered managers, registered professionals, occupational health, auxiliary staff and through the consultation will see if definition of who is in needs refinement or not.
- Will the FPA take into account differentials or base pay? – Power will be with the negotiating body to decide what they focus on and they choose what’s most important: base pay, differentials, terms and conditions etc…
- Comments: commissioners need to fund organisations to pay the FPA. DHSC are working with local gov’t to represent their views as employers and commissioners / with Care Act responsibilities.