Residential Social Care: Staff Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Hendy
Main Page: Lord Hendy (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Hendy's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(3 years, 2 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, does the Minister agree that the best technique for improving and regulating the wages and conditions of those engaged in the sector is through sectoral collective bargaining—a technique that was established by legislation in 1909 and abolished in 2013—namely, the wages councils. These were designed specifically for the low-paid and those less well organised in trade unions. Is it not time that there was a wages council for social care?
My Lords, I am enormously grateful for the insight of the noble Lord in this matter, in which I know that he is a great expert. However, he should of course remember that social care is provided through independent providers and local authorities. Social care workers are free to organise themselves as they wish, but that is not the arrangement that we have in this country.