Strengthening the Adult Social Care Workforce: Why Local Authorities Should Champion the Care England – Perkbox Vivup Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

 

Introduction

Adult social care is experiencing one of the most sustained workforce crises in its history. Vacancy rates remain high, turnover continues to outpace recruitment, and pressures on providers mount year after year. Employers are now competing in a labour market where pay is low, roles are demanding, and public perception of social care careers remains poor. These pressures have a direct impact on quality, continuity of care, and the people who draw on services every day and the 2025 budget statement only adds further pressure on the care workforce.

Against this backdrop, Care England has worked with Perkbox Vivup to design an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that is uniquely tailored to the needs of the adult social care workforce. Unlike generic corporate EAPs, this programme is built around the realities of care work: emotional labour, high stress, low pay, bereavement, burnout, and the cumulative impact of delivering care in challenging environments.

This article sets out why Local Authorities (LAs) should actively consider adopting this programme on behalf of the providers they commission. With 80% of care providers operating as SMEs, most do not have access to structured wellbeing, counselling, occupational health, or GP-access support. Yet Local Authorities, under the Care Act 2014, have responsibilities toward the market, toward provider sustainability, and crucially, for ensuring continuity of care for people who rely on local services.

The case is clear: supporting the wellbeing, resilience and stability of the care workforce is a statutory, financial and moral imperative. This article explains how a low-cost, high-impact EAP solution can help Local Authorities fulfil that duty while strengthening the providers they rely on to meet local need.

1. The Workforce Pressures Facing Adult Social Care

The challenges impacting workforce stability are well evidenced:

High Absence and Burnout

Care workers experience some of the highest sickness absence rates of any UK workforce. Much of this relates to mental health, with 12.7% of all UK sickness days attributed to poor mental wellbeing.

Burnout has become an entrenched threat: the Society of Occupational Medicine reports tens of thousands of NHS and care staff exiting roles due to emotional exhaustion, workload pressure and stress — a trend mirrored in social care.

Low Pay and Cost-of-Living Pressures

Care workers earn less than 80% of the wider workforce, with 71% paid below the Real Living Wage.  Financial stress undermines morale and contributes to both turnover and absenteeism and the recent 2025 budget does little to support the care workforce financially having frozen thresholds in essence reducing take home pay for over a million care workers.

Recruitment and Retention Problems

Turnover rates in adult social care exceed the national average seeing over 350,000 staff leave their roles in the last year. Providers report falling domestic applications and expect an increased reliance on agency staff due to immigration measured drawing a halt to international recruitment, which will come at a at significant cost to care providers.

COVID-19 and Bereavement Impacts

Emotional exhaustion, guilt, trauma, stress and loss continue to shape the workforce’s wellbeing. Bereavement support is described by Professor Martin Green as “a very neglected area,” yet grief can be a regular occurrence for many care workers, and their reactions are common and can severely impair ability to work.

Vacancies Leading to Service Issues

Care providers turn down admissions, scale back and even close services due to workforce shortages as opposed to paying for high-cost agency staff, creating commissioning challenges for local authorities in some areas.

Every Local Authority must confront these realities, because without action, those drawing on care and support risk reduced capacity, higher provider failure rates and compromised care quality.

 

2. Why Workforce Wellbeing Now Sits at the Heart of Local Authority Duties

Under the Care Act 2014, Local Authorities must:

• shape a sustainable care market
• ensure continuity of care
• support quality, safety and provider resilience
• take a preventative, person-centred approach
• promote wellbeing, independence and workforce stability through their commissioning

A depleted, stressed or unsupported workforce threatens those legal duties.

The Act also places responsibilities on Local Authorities to consider workforce conditions that affect quality and continuity. Given that wellbeing, burnout, mental health, financial stress and sickness absence are now primary drivers of instability, providing proactive workforce wellbeing support is no longer optional.

By enabling access to an EAP, Local Authorities can help ensure:

• fewer disrupted care packages
• fewer placement refusals
• reduced provider closures
• improved workforce capacity
• greater continuity and reliability of regulated services
• the ability to meet statutory duties consistently

Several local authorities have already acted on this basis, choosing to implement the Care England Perkbox Vivup EAP for their local care market.

 

3. Why an EAP Is the Most Effective, Scalable Intervention for Local Authorities

There are clear advantages of Employee Assistance Programmes as a workforce intervention. The Care England Perkbox Vivup EAP is specifically built around social care’s needs.

3.1 Preventative and In-the-Moment Support

The affordable EAP solution includes:

• 24/7 in-the-moment emotional support helpline
• 24/7 access to book virtual GP appointments
• Mental health triage by clinically trained practitioners
• Rapid telephone counselling
• Face-to-face or virtual counselling
• Trauma-informed support
• Critical incident response
• Debt, welfare and financial support
• Lifestyle savings equivalent to a £1,500 annual pay award
• Domestic abuse resources
• Legal guidance
• Dedicated support for carers and dependants
• Wellbeing assessments and proactive tools

This mix of proactive and responsive interventions is supported by clinical governance and is specifically designed to prevent small issues becoming crises to avoid the associated harm on the individual and the service, not to mention the remedial cost.

3.2 Access to an Online GP Service

The programme includes virtual GP access, one of the most valued features for shift-based care staff who struggle to access GP appointments, especially evenings and weekends.  This reduces sickness absence, enables faster treatment, and helps staff remain at work where appropriate.

3.3 Financial Wellbeing Tools

Given the pressure of low wages, the EAP includes:

• online debt advice
• budgeting resources
• benefits guidance
• Lifestyle Savings discounts on food, fuel, clothing, travel and utilities

This directly supports recruitment and retention by alleviating cost-of-living stressors.

3.4 Occupational Health Integration Where Required

Through Medigold Health, the model includes access to occupational health services at an additional cost to support; sickness absence assessments, return-to-work planning, ergonomics support and health surveillance.  These are areas many SMEs that lack internal HR or OH capability, which leads to huge costs, agency cover and distressed workers.

3.5 Data for Local Authorities

One of the most powerful benefits for Local Authorities is anonymised workforce insight:

• patterns of stress, burnout and absence
• underlying emotional and psychological pressures
• categories of support most frequently utilised
• trends that inform commissioning, workforce planning and local market shaping

Data shows:

• General stress: 34%
• Anxiety: 20%
• Work-related stress: 11%

This level of insight helps LAs understand the realities affecting the workforce they rely on, and can shape targeted support strategies.

 

4. Why Local Authorities Should Fund EAP Access for Their Care Providers

4.1 Most Providers Cannot Afford or Manage an EAP Alone

Because 80% of adult social care providers are SMEs, most:

• have no existing EAP
• do not have occupational health capacity
• cannot afford to implement structured wellbeing support
• lack HR resources to manage complex staff health issues
• cannot deliver in-the-moment psychological support

A Local Authority-led approach ensures equity of access, avoids fragmentation and supports market sustainability.  Local Authority buying power can secure rates far lower than an SME provider can secure for themselves.

4.2 EAPs Reduce System Pressure

Evidence from the documents shows:

• reduced sickness absence
• quicker returns to work
• reduced agency reliance
• improved retention
• fewer long-term health issues

This benefits the Local Authority through reduced placement refusals, fewer hardbacks, and stronger provider resilience.

4.3 It Demonstrates a Genuine Commitment to the Workforce

An EAP is a tangible and visible sign that Local Authorities value the workforce delivering statutory duties on their behalf. This improves morale, supports culture change and aligns with the Care Act’s wellbeing principles.

4.4 Cost-Effectiveness

For as little as £5 per worker per year, the EAP provides access to:

• 24/7 in-the-moment emotional support helpline
• Virtual GP services
• Mental health triage by clinically trained practitioners
• Rapid telephone counselling
• Face-to-face or virtual counselling
• Trauma-informed support
• Critical incident response
• Debt, welfare and financial advice
• Lifestyle savings equivalent to a £1,500 annual pay award
• Domestic abuse resources
• Legal guidance
• Dedicated support for carers and dependants
• Wellbeing assessments and proactive tools

Occupational Therapy support can be added to packages at an additional cost.  A Local Authority cannot deliver any equivalent level of support at this scale or cost internally.

 

5. Outcomes Observed in Local Authorities Already Using the Solution

Data from other adopters of the EAP solution show:

• reductions in crisis-level psychological presentations
• improved staff stability
• increased use of proactive wellbeing tools
• data that informs targeted local interventions
• demonstrated workforce benefit for a minimal per-person cost

Evidence that shows, action in this space is both possible and impactful.

Conclusion

The adult social care workforce is the backbone of a system that supports more than 800,000 people in England. Yet workers face extreme pressure, low pay, emotional burden and limited support. Provider stability, and Local Authorities’ ability to meet their statutory duties, depends on a workforce that is supported, resilient and able to remain in work.

Central Government loads pressure on Local Authorities and restricts their ability to raise funds locally requiring them to think creatively and to meet challenges with new and innovative solutions.

The Care England, Perkbox Vivup EAP provides a scalable, evidence-based, clinically robust and highly cost-effective way for Local Authorities to strengthen their local market, support the wellbeing of providers, and safeguard continuity of care.

For minimal investment, Local Authorities can offer a meaningful, preventative, proactive wellbeing solution to every care provider in their area, fulfilling statutory duties while protecting the workforce on which the entire system depends.

If we want to see changes, we need to act differently.  Doing what we have always done will not deliver the change needed.  We have lost our ability to leverage a highly effective international workforce and as such, we must protect our existing workers and meet their needs if we want to retain them.  Over 80% of care packages are publicly funded, and it is only right that Local Authorities help to invest in support and retention of our most valued asset, our workforce.

If you would like to discuss the Care England Perkbox Vivup EAP solution and how it could support your local authority and to hear how other authorities are utilising it, please contact tristan.rigby@perkbox.com to set up a call to discuss.