‘Good to See’ — Adult Care Staffing Is on the Rise Again
England’s adult social care workforce grew and staff vacancies fell last year, according to a new report by Skills for Care.
The annual report published this month highlighted a 1% expansion in the workforce between April 2022 and March 2023, with more vacancies being filled and reduced staff turnover.
Largely attributed to an uptick in international recruitment, these changes are encouraging to see after the sector shrank for the first time on record the previous year. But there are still challenges to face, warns Skills for Care CEO.
Key findings from the report include:
- The vacancy rate for care roles decreased to 9.9% from 10.6% the previous year, and continues to fall according to monthly reports; even below pre-COVID levels in independent care homes.
- The staff turnover rate decreased to 28.3% from 28.9% the previous year.
- The number of filled Registered Nurse vacancies rose by 2% to 33,000.
- Around 70,000 people arrived in the UK and started in direct care roles in the independent care sector.
- Workers with 5+ years of experience were paid an average of 6 pence more per hour than those with <1 year of experience.
- People under 25 made up 8% of the workforce, compared to 12% of the whole employed population.
- Around 390,000 people left their care jobs, of which around one-third left the social care sector altogether.
- Projections show the number of adult care jobs will need to increase by 25% by 2035 to keep up with the growing population of over-65s.
The report also specified five key factors to maximise staff retention:
- Pay above minimum wage
- No zero-hours contracts
- Full-time hours
- Access to training
- Relevant qualifications
Social care jobs that met all five criteria had a turnover rate of 20.6%, less than half the rate for jobs that met none of the criteria (48.7%). Implementing these factors should help enable the people who love what they do to stay in their jobs, improving the terms and conditions of their employment and investing in their career development.
The Skills for Care CEO, Oonagh Smyth, said: ‘It’s good to see green shoots for the sector and workforce in our latest report – which is testament to the hard work that’s gone into tackling the recruitment and retention challenges we face. But the challenges haven’t gone away.
‘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 … 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.
‘We’ll be using the expertise, data, insights and relationships we have developed over the last 20 years to develop that strategy. Given the rich diversity of the sector, any strategy will only be successful if it’s created by the many organisations and people that have a stake in the future of social care, so we’ll be working with a wide range of partners who are willing to embrace and drive the changes we need.’
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