The final report of Social Work Task Force acknowledged some job evaluation exercises had “under-rated” social workers’ knowledge and skills which led to them being paid less than comparable professions.
The taskforce called on employers to review their job evaluation of basic grade social workers to ensure that their knowledge and skills were being fairly rewarded. It added that if the current national agreement on local government pay failed to deliver improvements, the government should consider whether a national pay body was needed to ensure social workers were fairly rewarded.
Aspect believes the current job evaluation schemes used by councils undervalue social workers’ skills and responsibilities. We have lobbied for a national pay scale for practitioners to bring the profession into line with the police and NHS. However, this move was ruled out by the National Joint Council, the negotiating body for local government pay, in a report published last month.
We think this was a mistake. You can see the full Community Care article at
