Skills for Care has announced plans to develop a 15-year workforce strategy for adult social care.

The announcement came as the strategic workforce development and planning body published its annual State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce report, which revealed a 1% rise in the workforce between April 2022 and March 2023.

The strategic workforce development and planning body said it will be working with a wide range of organisations and people who have a stake in social care to identify the social care workforce needed over the next 15 years and set out a plan for ensuring the sector has enough of the right people with the right skills.

Additionally, the strategy will help employers and commissioners with workforce planning, support the government’s reform agenda and complement the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan covering the same period, which was published earlier this year. 

Green shoots

The State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce report revealed ‘green shoots’ in the workforce climate largely driven by an increase in international recruitment.

Vacancies in the sector fell to 9.9% – around 152,000 vacancies on any given day – from 10.6% the previous year. 

Turnover also fell slightly to 28.3% from 28.9% in the previous year, meaning 390,000 people left their jobs with around one-third leaving the sector altogether.

In further positive news, the number of registered nurse filled posts increased by 2% in 2022/23 to 33,000 as an estimated 70,000 people arrived in the UK and started direct care providing roles in the independent sector. 

Structural issues

The report also laid bare the deep-rooted structural challenges besetting the sector with inadequate remuneration and career progression remaining major issues. Care workers with five or more years’ experience are paid just six pence (0.6%) more per hour than those with less than one year of experience.

The report also revealed a mixed picture in terms of workforce demographics.

While the proportion of men in the sector rose for the first time on record from 18% to 19%, only 8% of workers were under 25 compared with 12% of the economically active population.

Projections show the UK will need 25% more posts (440,000) by 2035 to grow proportionally with the projected number of people aged 65 and over in the population.  

Five key factors

The report identifies five factors that are key to retaining staff: being paid more than the minimum wage; not being on a zero-hours contract; being able to work full-time; being able to access training; and having a relevant qualification. 

Where none of these factors apply, care workers are more than twice as likely to leave their jobs than when all five factors apply – a 48.7% turnover rate compared with 20.6%. 

Reaction

While welcoming the ‘green shoots’ identified in the report, Skills for Care chief executive, Oonagh Smyth, said challenges remained.

“In particular, the fact that 390,000 people left their jobs in 2022/23 and around a third of them left the sector altogether shows that we have a leaky bucket that we urgently need to repair,” Smyth said.

“We can’t simply recruit our way out of our retention challenges. So, we need a comprehensive workforce strategy to ensure we can both attract and keep enough people with the right skills to support everyone who draws on care and support – and all of us who will draw on care and support in the future.”

Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, welcomed the announcement of a workforce strategy, commenting: “We look forward to working with Skills for Care and other stakeholders to shape and implement a workforce strategy. Our collective aim is to ensure a sustainable, diverse and skilled social care workforce for the future.” 

Beverley Tarka, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), said: “International recruitment has been a welcome boost to the workforce, but it’s a sticking plaster to the bigger problems of poor pay and working conditions – without solving these, we will never solve the staffing crisis in adult social care. The next government must commit to a long-term, fully funded plan for social care which will offer fair pay to care workers, to enable us all to live well, work and get the care we need.”

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy, NHS Providers, said: “While it’s encouraging to see some ‘green shoots’ as this comprehensive overview reports, huge obstacles remain which have serious knock-on effects for service users, patients and the health and care system.”

Deakin said the announcement of a workforce strategy was a “welcome step”, but stressed it needed to be accompanied by “sustainable government investment and support to ensure the sector can not only recruit but keep much-needed staff”.

Independent Care Group chair, Mike Padgham, said: “These latest figures from Skills for Care are once again horrific and lay bare the true crisis at the heart of social care which shames us as a country.

“We need proper reform that sees social care and NHS care combined into a National Care Service, with proper funding to respect and reward those providing highly-skilled, professional care to people in their own home and in care or nursing home settings.

“Only then will we see these figures change and people begin to get the care they have a right to expect in the UK in 2023.”

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “Care England welcomes the drive to establish a long-term workforce strategy, something that is long overdue. Despite this government’s efforts to shift the dial, there is a sector-wide acknowledgement that more must be done.

“We require a strategy which recognises social care as a vital, fulfilling, and skilled profession. Now is our time to secure a stable and prosperous future for the sector that will help, once and for all, alleviate the workforce pressures and contribute to the long-term stability of both the care sector and the NHS.”

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:  “The only reason vacancy rates have not plummeted further is because employers are recruiting overseas. But this comes at a huge human cost with many migrant workers facing exploitation and receiving insufficient training to deliver quality care.

“To tackle the workforce crisis, care workers must be paid fairly, have secure employment and proper access to courses. Ministers must make good on their promises and solve social care’s many problems now.”

A government spokesperson said: “The action we’ve taken is growing the social care workforce and filling vacancies, meaning there is more capacity in the social care system than last year.

“To further bolster the workforce this week we launched the next phase of our Made With Care recruitment campaign – designed to reach millions of people via video on demand, radio and digital channels – and the average pay for care workers has also increased.

“We know retention is equally as important which is why we are also investing almost £2 billion over two years through the Market Sustainability and Improvement Funds, which will help councils support the workforce.”