The calls come as a new Skills for Care report shows low pay continues to make hiring and keeping adult social care staff challenging. The data reveals the median hourly rate for care workers was £11 – 58p an hour more than the National Living Wage at the time. This is slightly less than the previous year, when the differential was 61p.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said health leaders will be ‘concerned' by these figures which continue to show worrying trends in how competitive social care pay and terms are.

‘We acknowledge that the new government have made a number of important commitments regarding fair pay for the social care workforce.

‘However, there is a need to go further and the recent Skills for Care Workforce Strategy sets out a series of steps and actions which we urge the government to also support and implement.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers, said: ‘Ministers can't put off difficult decisions about social care any longer. Successive governments have dodged them for too long.

‘The government has pledged a new deal for social care staff. We need action now to resolve the issue of pay for social care staff to improve domestic recruitment. Recruits from abroad are welcome and valued but social care and the NHS need better pipelines of staff from these shores to make health and care workforces more sustainable.'

She said better conditions, training and opportunities for social care staff are important too.

‘Social care needs meaningful reform and long-term, sustainable funding to address chronic workforce shortages and to ease pressures on over-stretched services – which take a huge toll on carers and users,' Cordery added.

Lucinda Allen, senior policy officer at thinktank the Health Foundation, said the government's forthcoming legislation on a fair pay agreement to set minimum pay, terms and conditions in social care is promising.

‘Boosting pay is a necessary step to make the sector more attractive, but evidence suggests that pay policies work better when there's also improvements to progression, training and development. Alongside the fair pay agreement, the government needs to set out a comprehensive workforce strategy for social care.'

Allen added that the social care system also desperately needs wider reform and investment, including to improve people's care and protect people against high care costs.

‘Nearly 100 days into the new government, there is still no sign of a desperately needed plan for social care. Without this, the government's aspiration of a national care service risks being added to the long list of broken political promises on social care,' she added.  

In addition, Nuffield Trust deputy director of policy Natasha Curry said the sector remains in ‘peril', and today's outlook must serve as a wake-up call for government to get to grips with the future of social care.

She said: ‘Shoring up its workforce with overseas recruits is not a sustainable solution and the government needs to act now on the issue. Skills for Care's existing workforce strategy is a great place to start – government needs to urgently fund and support that strategy, working closely with the sector and stakeholders, to join up the dots on workforce development, pay and wider service improvement and integration to ensure we have a social care sector fit for the future."  

Curry added: ‘However, boosting rights and pay in isolation will not magically fix deep-rooted, complex issues across the sector. We need a holistic, joined-up approach as part of wider social care reform. Widespread illegal pay must be tackled, workers need to be able to earn more over their careers, and the government must put in more funding to cover the costs of higher pay, otherwise councils and care providers will simply be pushed into bankruptcy.'

Meanwhile, Unison head of social care Gavin Edwards, said: 'It's no wonder vacancy rates remain high and staff are leaving for better-paid jobs elsewhere. For too long wages have failed to reflect that care staff are trained, skilled and dedicated. The care system has enabled unscrupulous employers to exploit workers.

'A fair pay agreement for social care is essential to create new national standards, enforced sector-wide. But pay for travel time, sleep-in shifts and sick leave also needs addressing, along with zero-hours contracts. All care workers deserve better, whether they're British or have come to the UK to support this vital public service.'

Head of practice and workforce at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, Suhailah Mohamed, agrees that investment in the social care workforce is critical.

‘More investment and a more targeted focus on recruitment and retention would mean we could help the people accessing social care services manage their health and daily living, as well as supporting them to live in homes that are safe and enable them to live quality lives,' she added.