Bringing the employer back in: why social care needs a standard employment relationship

Quality social care requires a quality workforce but the normal route for workforce development, through strong HR policies and good quality employment relationships, has not been promoted by current social care policy. Through a study of one local authority and five of its domiciliary care providers, including public, for-profit and not-for-profit concerns, this article demonstrates that even standard basic employment guarantees may not be available to domiciliary care staff. Much of the responsibility for these conditions is found to lie with the contracting conditions under which the independent providers operate. Employers still provide some basic coordination and protection functions for staff in this highly fragmented sector but future plans for user-driven care may further weaken the employers' role. Instead policymakers should seek to underpin quality improvement programmes by the creation of conditions in which strong employment relationships are able to be forged.