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The pay difference between care workers qualified to NVQ levels 2 and 3 is just “pennies”, according to early indications from a national survey of employers.

The survey also found that more senior social care assistants were qualified to level 2 rather than 3, which would be the closer skills match for the job.

Level 2 is targeted at care assistants and focuses on “hands-on” care; level 3 is targeted at staff with some autonomy and responsibility.

The findings were from just under 2,000 returns to the national minimum data set for social care, co-ordinated by sector training body Skills for Care.

Skills for Care chief executive Andrea Rowe said that the limited number of returns meant the difference in pay between the two levels could only be explored after more returns were in.

But she said the early findings had already “exploded” myths. For instance, only 3 per cent of care workers who left their jobs in the past year went to work in the retail sector and the same proportion travelled in the opposite direction.