Residential Child Care Workers Negotiating Board – the new government’s commitment to ending low pay.
We all want ‘The right homes for the right children in the right place at the right time (indeed it was NCERCC that first used these words)
This means we must add – ‘With the right wages for the right people’.
This is one of the foundations for any changes to the Residential Child Care sector.
How to do this in Residential Child Care?
NCERCC see Fair Pay agreements to be an essential element of the proposed Regional Care Cooperatives.
See NCERCC blogs
Explaining the Theory and Practice for Fair Pay in Residential Child Care – NCERCC
2025 Fair Pay for Residential Child Care Workers – Fair Pay Agreements – NCERCC
Should the regional care cooperatives founder, and there a multitude of reasons that they will, then there must be the back stop of a Residential Child Care Workers Negotiating Board
Government should establish a dedicated negotiating body for Residential Child Care workers to improve employment conditions within the sector.
Residential Child Care should be removed from the generic social work/social care negotiations. These adversely affect the true value of the work being recognised as they are bound in the tangles of benchmarking, pay comparisons. These are predicated on old dated understanding of the RCCW role and task. This is highly skilled work requiring knowledge and expertise. It has been underappreciated for too long. This government can correct the mistakes of history
A Residential Child Care Workers Negotiation Body (RCCNB) would empower RCCWs to negotiate their pay, terms, conditions and professional development so that they are fairly-rewarded for their work.
Of course there would be scope for local bargaining arrangements (individual providers) to negotiate above the SSSNB rate, but NCERCC thinks that a RCCNB should seek to an ambitious national agreement.
The RCCNB would apply to ALL RCCWs in all homes – LA, vol org, private. Outsourced workers doing the same job need to be the same rate. The RCCNB would be tasked with ensuring the pay, terms and conditions for the profession of RCCW are collectively negotiated. Excluding any grouping doing the same job would risk undermining the principle behind the RCCNB that there is a collectively agreed rate for the job.
