Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national career framework for social care staff that is integrated with the job-evaluated Agenda for Change pay and conditions framework in the NHS.

Those working in social care have been ignored for too long, and so will be at the heart of our initial reforms. We will start by engaging with care workers and trade unions to deliver a long over-due new deal, which will include establishing the first ever Fair Pay Agreement for care professionals. The details of this will be agreed as part of this process.