Homecare Voices is a not-for-profit peer support network and advocacy body run by and for direct homecare workers.
The report draws on insights from 511 current and former domiciliary care workers, providing rare, worker-led insight into what employment in homecare looks like in practice.
Rachel Kelso, Founder and Managing Director of Homecare Voices, says:
“We hope these insights offer a constructive contribution to discussions about sustainable workforce practices and high-quality care.”
Key Findings:
- Headline hourly pay rates in homecare often mask unpaid travel and waiting time, with 72% paid for 'contact time' only.
- Workers prioritise payment for all working time over increases in basic pay, with 70% identifying payment for all working time as the key to improved retention compared to 55% who called for higher basic pay.
- Labour shortage narratives sit alongside widespread underemployment, with 47% unsure that when rota is published, they will have been given the hours they need and 67% of migrant homecare workers indicating their main sponsor does not provide sufficient hours.
- Rota instability and legal breaches of rest entitlements are common with 87% not always receiving the legal 11 hours' rest between working days.
- Sufficient visit time - including time for social support - is central to quality of care with 81% indicating that most or all of the people they visit experience loneliness on a regular basis.
Key Recommendations:
- Improved systems of oversight and top-down enforcement necessary in respect of all terms and conditions of employment in homecare.
- Enforcement of existing National Minimum Wage law must precede or accompany any new sector-specific minimum wage.
- Business and commissioning models should adapt to accommodate shift-based pay in homecare.
- A reduction in the number of homecare providers serving any one area may be necessary to address poor workforce utilisation.
- New guaranteed hours legislation requires close oversight in homecare.
- The social dimension of care work should be protected and fortified in the interests of both retention and of those who draw on support.
- An alternative case for investment in adult social care presents care work as socially indispensable and highly responsible.
- Research to understand employment conditions for all homecare workers should follow this unfunded, grassroots, worker-led survey.
Read more and download the report at: https://www.homecarewg.org/behind-closed-doors
