The Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation are undertaking a joint study, investigating policy options to improve pay for care workers and managers in England. The study aims to critically appraise a list of potential policy options and measures to implement these.

There has been limited analysis comparing these policy options, among policymakers and the sector, including their feasibility, likely impacts, unintended consequences, and interaction with other policies.

We are keen to understand the extent governments in other countries have taken deliberate steps to improve pay for social care workers / long-term care workers, and the approaches they’ve used. Examples might include minimum wages, bonus payments, aligning pay between long-term care and health care or wider sectors, requirements on pay for long-term care providers receiving government contracts, collective sectoral bargaining, new pay-setting bodies, or similar. We’re interested primarily in direct interventions to improve pay rather than broader workforce policies (such as professionalisation or better training and development for some individuals).

We are looking to identify examples of countries where these sort of policies have been introduced, and what the effect has been. We are also interested in countries where care workers’ pay is comparatively high (compared to other OECD countries), and to understand why this is the case. We are also keen to understand more about the policy design, context, enablers and barriers.

Please contact nina.hemmings@nuffieldtrust.org.uk and cyril.lobont@nuffieldtrust.org.uk if you have research, papers, anecdotal evidence or suggestions for this work. Thank you