DATE 17 November 2025
Mike Nesbitt, Minister of Health, NI announced this week that he would be breaking his previous commitment to provide sufficient funding for the Social Care sector to pay care workers the Real Living Wage.
Commenting on the announcement, our Chief Executive, Dr Agnes Lunny (OBE) said “This decision undermines trust and morale across the social care workforce. Our staff deserve recognition for their vital role, not broken promises.”
Positive Futures is a member of the Association for Real Change (ARC), a body representing the care sector providers, which has 59 members and was heavily involved in the co-ordinated response to Minister Nesbitt.
ARC has expressed their severe disappointment with this decision impacting significantly the community and voluntary and private sector providers and demanded the minister rethink this decision.
To read the letter from ARC please see below.
_______________________________________________________________________________
FAO: Minister Nesbitt
Department of Health
17th November 2025
Dear Minister Nesbitt, Re: Real Living Wage
I refer to the recent communication confirming your decision to postpone funding that would enable the social care sector to become a Real Living Wage employer.
Breaking the commitment outlined in the Reset Plan (June 2025) and prioritising statutory sector pay is extremely short-sighted and detrimental to a workforce already under significant strain. Expressing our disappointment does not go far enough.
Restoring pay parity for health service staff at the expense of this pledge has left independent, community and voluntary providers (non-statutory employers), facing difficult conversations with dedicated staff who were expecting the increase from September, based on departmental assurances and public messaging. Without pay equity, non-statutory social care providers cannot compete for talent, particularly in the post-COVID environment.
There are 41,825 social care workers in Northern Ireland according to the NISCC register; of whom 32,519 are employed in the independent, community and voluntary sector – hence directly impacted by this decision. This sector is vital to the health service ecosystem in Northern Ireland and yet attracting or retaining skilled staff is increasingly challenging without a Real Living Wage – it is the elephant in the room.
ARC NI represents 59 service providers of social care; the services they offer are diverse and critical to allow individuals to lead a full and meaningful life.
Your decision does not just affect homecare workers or the “winter pressures”. These are important; however, the demand is much broader than that. For example, the second-largest group of social care workers (14.34%) are employed in services for adults with a learning disability spanning several service areas, including long term support (1).
For over a decade ARC NI has provided evidence and highlighted workforce pressures experienced by the learning disability community, recently reinforced by research from the Fair Work Forum. This evidence speaks for itself, and I see no merit in re-stating this.
ARC NI has been an active partner, since inception, of the Social Care Collaborative Reform Board (as now known), the Social Care Fair Work Forum and indeed the Learning Disability Model reform. However, this decision significantly undermines trust at a time when stability, reform and cross-sector delivery is required.
All stakeholders acknowledge the critical interdependencies between primary, secondary and social care and yet the central role of the independent, community and voluntary sector continues to be undervalued.
Transparency on next steps is essential. Prioritising statutory pay has damaged relationships, sector morale and raised long standing questions around sustainability of the social care sector, delivered by independent, community and voluntary sector.
Why was the decision made to prioritise the funding of the statutory sector, knowing this risked the commitment that was made to independent, community and voluntary providers?
We are therefore urging you to reconsider the decision to make available the funds for this segment of the social care sector.
Yours Sincerely,
LA Newton NI Director
Association for Real Change
1. According to the NISCC Live Register Report (June 2025)
Head Office: ARC House, Marsden Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S40 1JY
Email: contact.u@arcuk.org.uk Web: arcuk.org.uk
Registered Charity No: 285575 Scottish Charity No: SC039129
Registered in England Company No: 01658354 Registered Office: Chesterfield