London, 29 July 2026
A Prime Minister has put care workers at the heart of the National Care Service, and we are ready to help
The Care Workers’ Charity is genuinely excited by the Prime Minister’s speech on adult social care, and above all by his decision to build a National Care Service that starts with the workforce. Care is one of the most human things we do. It is helping someone wash and eat, keeping them safe, sitting with them through a hard night, and making sure the people we love are treated with dignity. For years we have made a simple argument: there is no care service without care workers. Today a Prime Minister put those workers at the heart of a National Care Service, spoke openly about his own father’s experience of the system, and committed to fully fund the workforce reform that follows. That is the commitment the sector has waited decades to hear.
We are excited by the decision to bring forward Baroness Casey’s review, the pledge to turn the Fair Pay Agreement into wider, fully funded workforce reform, and the ambition to lift care work towards NHS standards with real progression routes for young people. These are the right steps, and they reflect what care workers have been telling us for a long time.
We are equally encouraged that the Health and Social Care Secretary, Yvette Cooper, and Baroness Louise Casey are placing the workforce at the centre of this reform. Baroness Casey’s Big Conversation, and the Commission she chairs, offer a genuine chance to design a National Care Service around the people who deliver it, and the Secretary of State’s focus on the workforce signals that this is more than a review. It is the start of change.
What matters just as much is the Prime Minister’s refusal to let the noise of politics or media pressure knock him off this path, as it has knocked governments off it before. Social care has not failed for lack of reviews. Baroness Casey has counted 22 attempts at reform since 1997. It has failed because, time and again, governments walked away the moment it became difficult. A Prime Minister who says he will not flinch, who calls for problem-solving over point-scoring, and who backs his words with funding, is offering something new, and we intend to help him deliver it.
The scale of the opportunity is clear in the numbers. There are around 1.6 million people working in adult social care in England, and in June 2026 an average of 13,600 people a day were medically fit to leave hospital but could not, often because the care to support them at home was not there. Our own evidence shows what fully funded reform can change. Of the more than 2,000 care workers who responded to our 2025 Wellbeing Survey, 72% do not feel financially secure, 57% point to low pay as the main reason, almost one in four have used a food bank, and 37% often think about leaving. This is the workforce the National Care Service will be built on, and properly funded reform can begin to turn those numbers around.
Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity, said:
“This is the moment we have campaigned for. A Prime Minister has finally said out loud that you cannot build a National Care Service, or care for the people we love, without the care workforce, and he has committed to fully fund the reform to back it up. What moved me most was his honesty about his own father, and his promise not to be pushed off course when it gets hard, because that is exactly where every government before has given up. Care workers give so much of themselves to strangers who become like family, and they deserve a system that gives something back. We welcome this wholeheartedly, and we are ready to roll up our sleeves and help deliver it: a Fair Pay Agreement funded properly, a workforce plan with real progression, and care workers themselves at the table when the decisions are made.”
How we can help
- Bring care workers’ own experience and evidence into the cross-party talks and Baroness Casey’s review.
- Work with the government and sector partners to design a Fair Pay Agreement that raises pay and closes the gap with the NHS.
- Support the development of a funded workforce plan, with national standards and progression routes that give people a career, not just a job.
The Prime Minister called for problem-solving, not point-scoring. On the care workforce, we could not agree more, and we are ready to help him get it done.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Interviews available:
- Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity — available for TV, radio and print interviews. Karolina is a former care worker, regularly briefs MPs and government on social care workforce policy, and has been quoted in national media including BBC News, the Guardian and the Times.
- Care workers with lived experience — CWC can connect journalists with care workers willing to speak on the record about pay, working conditions, and reliance on the charity’s hardship grants. Case studies available on request.
About The Care Workers’ Charity (CWC) The Care Workers’ Charity is the only UK charity dedicated to supporting paid care workers across the social care sector. We have provided over £7 million in crisis grants to over 14,000 care workers. We offer mental well-being support to care workers, ensuring they receive assistance during challenging times. The CWC provides accredited Mental Health First Aid training to care workers and other staff and advocates for policy changes to improve lives and working conditions in the UK. We participate in government roundtables, academic forums, and policy discussions, sharing insights from our grant applicants’ experiences. To learn more about our mission and initiatives, visit www.thecareworkerscharity.org.uk.
Registered charity no. 1207208. Registered office: Rushworth Studios, 2 Rushworth Street, London, SE1 0RB. www.thecareworkerscharity.org.uk
Broadcast-ready clips, b-roll, photography and care worker case studies available on request.
Media contact: Shanna Wells | shanna@thecwc.org.uk | 07930 992443