Stephen Allan, Florin Vadean, Olena Nizalova
Staff play a key role in providing social care but there is little evidence for England of how much their employment conditions influence care recipients’ outcomes. With appropriate data, we assessed to what extent pay, training and contract type influenced care outcomes using statistical analysis.
We found a positive influence of care worker’s average hourly pay on the quality of life of those supported by social care. Evidence of the negative effect of zero hours contracts and positive effect of training on care recipients’ quality of life was limited. To put these findings in monetary terms, we made a number of assumptions and estimated how much it would cost to increase a person’s life by one year with perfect health.
This work provides policymakers with evidence about the relationship between staffing employment conditions and care outcomes. This will aid appropriate decision making on social care funding levels in England.
Stephen Allan, S.Allan@kent.ac.uk
