A pay body for 1.5 million care workers was promised by the end of this year. The department's own roadmap, touched in the same edit, still says the regulations were due in October.
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In short. A Department of Health and Social Care press release said the new Adult Social Care Negotiating Body, the body meant to negotiate pay for 1.5 million care workers, would be "set up by the end of the year" [2]. The Department for Business and Trade's live timeline update, revised 5 November 2026, instead lists the body's establishment under "Other measures that will take effect by January 2027" [3]. Its companion roadmap, revised at the identical second, still lists the regulations needed to create the body under "Measures that will take effect in October 2026", a month already passed [4]. The power to make those regulations has existed since 6 April 2026; none have been made [1]. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
This site's 31 October piece found the Department for Business and Trade's plain-language roadmap for the Employment Rights Act 2025 still dating one measure, the duty to tell workers they can join a trade union, a full three months wrong against the department's own corrected timetable [6]. The same roadmap has a second, separate measure wrong in the same way, on a different subject: a negotiating body meant to fix pay for the UK's 1.5 million adult social care workers.
What the government promised, and when
On 16 July 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care announced the body that would deliver England's first fair pay agreement for social care. "The new Adult Social Care Negotiating Body will be set up by the end of the year, bringing together trade unions and employers to negotiate on behalf of the sector," the press release said, adding that an independent chair would be appointed "in early 2027", the first round of negotiations would "commence in April 2027", and the first settlement would follow "by April 2028", backed by £500 million [2]. "The end of the year" meant December 2026: five and a half months out, a specific, checkable commitment in the department's own words, not a vague aspiration.
The power behind it sits in section 39 of the Employment Rights Act 2025: "For the purposes of this Chapter, the Secretary of State may by regulations provide for there to be a body in England known as the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body for England" [1]. That is a power, not a duty, and the Act gives it no deadline of its own. Section 39 itself came into force on 6 April 2026, so the Secretary of State has been free to use it for seven months [1]. The page's own commencement record lists the single statutory instrument that switched the power on; it lists nothing made under it since.
The design questions the regulations would need to settle, the body's negotiating process, coverage, dispute resolution, implementation, compliance and enforcement, went out to consultation on 30 September 2025 and closed on 16 January 2026 [5]. Ten months after that consultation closed, the department has not published a response to it.
Two documents, one edit, two different months
The Department for Business and Trade keeps two live documents tracking the whole Employment Rights Act timetable on one gov.uk collection page: a detailed "timeline update" and a plainer "roadmap". Both were revised on 5 November 2026, at 15:50:30 UTC, the identical second, according to each page's own publishing metadata.
The timeline update, in that edit, places the care body under a heading of its own: "Other measures that will take effect by January 2027", followed by a single line, "the establishment of the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body in England" [3]. That heading alone is already a month later than the press release's "end of the year". The roadmap, touched in the same edit, has not caught up with even that: under "Measures that will take effect in October 2026", it still lists "bringing forward regulations to establish the Fair Pay Agreement Adult Social Care Negotiating Body", alongside other items including the trade union duty this site already found wrong there [4] [6]. As of publication, no regulations establishing the body have been made at all, so the roadmap's own October deadline has already been missed in whichever document a reader happens to open.
Three dates for one step now sit in the government's own paperwork: the end of 2026 (the July press release), January 2027 (the timeline update), and October 2026 (the roadmap, already passed). None of the three documents acknowledges that either of the other two says something different.
The claims, tested
| What the government has said, in order | What its own live documents show today | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 16 July 2026 press release: the Negotiating Body "will be set up by the end of the year" [2] | The 5 November 2026 timeline update instead schedules its establishment under "measures that will take effect by January 2027" [3] | A firm public commitment slipped by at least a month, with no document flagging the change |
| The same 5 November 2026 edit, same collection page: the roadmap lists the regulations to create the body under "Measures that will take effect in October 2026" [4] | October 2026 has passed with no regulations made; the department's two documents, edited at the same second, now disagree with each other by three months | Two of the department's own documents, touched in one edit, give different answers to the same question |
Credit where due
The underlying commitment is not vague. The press release names a funding figure, £500 million, and a four-stage sequence, body by end of 2026, chair by early 2027, negotiations from April 2027, first settlement by April 2028, each with its own date [2]. That is a more specific plan than most policy announcements offer, and it is a genuine first for a workforce of 1.5 million people this site has found no previous statutory pay mechanism for. The design consultation it ran beforehand asked exactly the right questions, remit, dispute resolution, enforcement, before the government tried to legislate the answers [5]. The fault here is not the policy. It is that the department's own live record of its progress cannot currently agree with itself on when the first step happens.
Verdict
Four stars, from two documented mistakes. A specific, funded commitment to the end of 2026 has become "by January 2027" in one government document and an already-missed "October 2026" in another, both edited at the same second, with no regulations made under the power that would deliver any of the three dates.
The star score counts two documented mistakes. First, the Department for Business and Trade's "timeline update", revised 5 November 2026, schedules the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body's establishment under measures taking effect "by January 2027", a month later than the Department of Health and Social Care's own 16 July 2026 press release, which said the body would be "set up by the end of the year", with neither document acknowledging the other. Second, the department's companion "roadmap", revised at the identical second as the timeline update (15:50:30 UTC, 5 November 2026, per both pages' own publishing metadata), still lists the regulations needed to establish the body under "Measures that will take effect in October 2026", a deadline already passed with no regulations made under section 39 of the Employment Rights Act 2025. Two falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding about the design of the fair pay agreement itself, which the 2025 consultation sets out in detail and which has not yet had a published government response, or about the other measures on the same roadmap, which this site has covered separately. The finding is narrower: that two of the department's own live documents, edited at the same moment, give different dates for the same step, and that the earlier of those two dates has already passed. Checked directly against the Act, the consultation and both live departmental timetables, all fetched and read in full 6 November 2026.
Sources
- Employment Rights Act 2025, section 39, legislation.gov.uk
- Care workers to be represented in fair pay agreements, Department of Health and Social Care, 16 July 2026
- Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update, Department for Business and Trade, updated 5 November 2026
- Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: roadmap, Department for Business and Trade, updated 5 November 2026
- Fair pay agreement process in adult social care, Department of Health and Social Care, ran 30 September 2025 to 16 January 2026
- Trade union duty: roadmap still says October, Tracked Changes, 31 October 2026