Care England says new workforce figures highlight urgent need to invest in pay, retention and experienced leadership

Commenting on the Skills for Care state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England report, Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said:

“We welcome Skills for Care’s excellent new report on the state of the Adult Social Care sector and workforce in England.

 

“While the report highlights a number of positive indicators, with vacancies falling to 96,000 and staff turnover declining, it also highlights the scale of the challenge facing the sector. Workforce growth has slowed from 3.2% to 1.4% over the past year, and Skills for Care estimates that the sector could need an additional 410,000 posts by 2040 to keep pace with population ageing alone.

 

“While overseas recruitment is not a silver bullet, it has played a vital role in filling workforce gaps, though the report provides compelling evidence that the sector is getting better at drawing people in, this is met with difficult conclusions around retention. Staff are supporting people with increasingly complex needs, working more closely with the NHS and taking on greater responsibilities (with 46% of direct care workers now undertaking delegated healthcare activities), but workers who have five or more years of experience earn, on average, just 12p an hour more than those with less than one year’s experience.

 

“Of particular concern is the reversal in the long-term decline in registered manager turnover, which rose from 17% to 19.7% in the latest year. The importance of experienced leadership is clear, with care worker turnover averaging 28.3% in services where registered managers have been in post for less than a year, compared with 20.6% where managers have been in post for 20 years or more. Alongside rising turnover in senior management and increased vacancies among senior care workers, these findings raise concerns about the sector’s ability to retain the experienced staff and leaders on whom services depend.

 

“The question of retention, the report reminds us, does not have to be complicated. Turnover was just 15.3% among workers benefiting from five positive employment factors, including better pay, guaranteed hours, training, relevant qualifications and full-time employment, compared with 34.3% among those with none of these factors in place. We need more people to join the sector, but we also need them to see social care as a career in which they can build their future. This is only possible when providers see fair funding and stable commissioning that enables long-term workforce investment.

 

“With the Autumn Budget just two weeks away, the Government faces a clear test of whether its ambitions for social care are matched by the investment and changes to commissioning needed to deliver them. Without addressing the financial pressures facing providers, there is a real risk that its workforce commitments will fall short of the improvements care workers, employers and those who rely on care services need and deserve to see.”