Nearly half (45%) of social care providers in the Southeast have considered existing the market in the past 12 months, a new survey has revealed.

The online survey assessing key market stability drivers for the sector was conducted by the South East Care Alliance during May and June.

The research found 83% of providers are finding it more difficult to replace staff than in the past.

Additionally, almost four in ten (38%) of staff leaving their role are also exiting social care due to competition from other sectors, the NHS and low morale.

The report said the workforce crisis was leading to a reduction in the amount of care available in the region with funding increases for local authority and NHS clients failing to keep pace actual cost increases.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said the report highlighted the “stark and worrying” picture in the region with “an increasingly bleak funding landscape increasing pressure on local providers”.

“Providers in the Southeast face particular pressures from the high costs of living and housing in the region, but the reality is that these are not issues isolated to the Southeast,” Green added.

“It is now incumbent upon those at the top to go beyond the devolution of responsibility to local authorities and seek to stabilise the sector with a strategy and funding package that goes beyond the £500m being generated via the Health and Social Care Levy.”

Erica Lockhart, chair of SESCA, said: “The results of this survey should be a major wake-up call that action is needed now. Care associations across the Southeast are becoming increasingly concerned about the continuing plight of their members. Concerns about their ability to continue operating and providing care are at very high levels and, as it stands, no support is coming – that must change.”