On one of the CareSpace Forums there is a debate on how much social workers get paid with Unison saying the average for middle-ranking social workers is £29,000 p.a., lower than many other public service workers.

Added to this many social workers will face pay freezes in the upcoming financial year.

It seems something of an insult then that the post of Chief Executive for the General Social Care Council to be advertised for “up to £150k”.

Most of us know that money in the social care budget is tight, councils are making cutbacks which are incurring the wrath of charities. Yet these councils are going to have to cut back even further to make the ‘efficiency savings’ that will be needed to fund a third of the Governments proposed free home care for the elderly.

Money is likely to be cut back for care provision on the frontline, care fees will suffer from council cutbacks and the potential withdrawal of training funds through Train to Gain etc means that care providers will have to fund training directly from care fees. This is something that will probably mean that the average pay of £6.20 per hour for frontline care workers is hardly likely to rise during the coming year.

When everyone on the frontline of care is expected to ‘tighten their belts’ and put up with pay freezes why on earth should the Chief Executive of a failed regulator have the opportunity to earn “up to £150k”.

Of course the standard answer will be that the salary is intended to compete with the private sector and designed to attract the ‘right sort of candidate’. But what does that really mean? There are very few (if any) Directors of Adult Social Services who get that much and I am sure there are many capable candidates with vast social care experience who would willingly do the job for a lot less.

If workers and users of social care are expected to put up with bad times and accept cuts in pay and services then those at the top should be as well and the GSCC should not insult the rest of us by advertising such a job with a salary like that.