Lancashire County Council faces fresh round of care worker strikes

A fresh round of strike action by social care staff at Lancashire County Council has been announced after the authority was accused of failing to agree to reopen talks to try to resolve a dispute that is now in its second year.

Social care support workers are set to walk out between 4th and 19th October – having already downed tools on 69 occasions since July 2024.

The strike was sparked by a row over what the UNISON union says are exploitative working practices, which mean staff who are employed to undertake adult social care assessments and arrange and review packages of care are being given responsibilities that should be restricted to higher paid colleagues. 

Negotiations between the two sides via the conciliation service ACAS broke down more than three months ago – with each blaming the other for the collapse.

However, the union has now claimed that it has since attempted to restart discussions – but was rebuffed by the county council.
UNISON’s North West regional organiser James Rupa told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the authority was approached late last month – once the union had a renewed mandate for strike action – but was told via ACAS that the council did not want to “pursue” conciliation at that stage.

The LDRS understands that Lancashire County Council first wanted to have internal discussions about its next move – and has still neither formally rejected the resumption of ACAS-mediated talks, nor yet agreed to them.    

Mr. Rupa said: “Lancashire County Council is exploiting its social care support officers. It’s taking advantage of their expertise and good nature to deliver social work services on the cheap.

“The council refused to shift its position in talks aimed at resolving the dispute. Then it glossed over the findings of a damning report from the care regulator.

“That’s why staff feel they’ve no choice but to take more action. This dispute could be resolved quite easily. But Lancashire County Council needs to start taking its employees’ concerns seriously and deal with them.”        

In response, a spokesperson for Lancashire County Council said:  “UNISON have given notice that our adult social care support officers (SCSOs) have balloted and agreed their intention to take discontinuous strike action between 4th and 19th  October, meaning strike action can be called on any of these days.  

“Contingency plans are in place to ensure business continuity and to ensure that Lancashire residents will not be adversely affected.

“We deeply value our staff and are listening to their concerns.  We want to work with our staff and the trade union to reach a positive resolution to the ongoing dispute.”

UNISON claims the authority’s social care support officers are regularly having to undertake increasingly complex casework, including supporting survivors of domestic abuse, victims of sexual exploitation and people suffering from prolonged self-neglect.

It says staff want clear boundaries between pay grades to ensure they are paid appropriately for the duties they carry out.

Lancashire County Council’s adult social care services were rated as “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission last month – based on an assessment that took place between October 2024 and February 2025.  One of the findings was that staff were struggling under the weight of “unsustainable workloads”.