Sector Leaders React to Today’s Skills for Care Workforce Report

Sector leaders have broadly welcomed today’s (June 24) latest Skills for Care report, The Size and Structure of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England 2025/26, which reveals the strongest workforce position seen in a decade.

The annual report shows that filled posts in adult social care increased by 1.4% to 1.59 million, while the vacancy rate fell to 6.2%—its lowest level for ten years—and staff turnover dropped to 23.6%. The figures have been hailed as evidence of growing workforce stability across the sector, although care leaders caution that significant challenges remain around long-term recruitment, retention, funding and rising demand for services.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) said the figures provide welcome evidence that the sector has become more stable following the significant workforce pressures experienced in recent years. Fewer vacancies and continued growth in filled posts are positive signs for providers, the workforce, and people who draw on care and support.

However, SCIE has warned that these improvements should be viewed in the context of longer-term workforce challenges that remain unresolved.

Gerard Crofton-Martin, Interim Chief Executive at SCIE, said:

“The latest data gives grounds for cautious optimism. It is encouraging to see vacancy rates return to the lowest levels in a decade and the workforce continue to grow.

“But one of the key drivers of workforce growth in recent years has been international recruitment. International colleagues have made an invaluable contribution to social care. However, changes to the migration system mean that international recruitment alone cannot provide a sustainable long-term answer to the sector’s workforce challenges. This is against a backdrop of a reduction in British nationals joining the workforce. Together, these trends expose the fragility of the sector’s workforce pipeline.

“The progress shown in this year’s figures is welcome, but sustaining it will require long-term workforce planning and investment. Social care must be seen as a valued career with clear progression opportunities, competitive pay, and access to high-quality learning and development. Building a strong domestic workforce is essential if we are to create a resilient social care sector capable of meeting growing demand in the years ahead.”

Lucinda Allen, Senior Policy Fellow at the Health Foundation, said:

‘Today’s report is a tale of two halves. The social care vacancy rate has fallen to the lowest level in a decade. But workforce growth is slowing as numbers of both British staff and new international recruits fall. These trends highlight the long-term fragility of the care sector.

‘Care work is rewarding but has long been underpaid and undervalued. The government’s plan for new fair pay agreements to improve pay, terms and conditions in social care has the potential to be transformative. Success relies on funding to fuel the system and incentives, including for providers to comply with new rules and for staff to stay and progress in the sector. International evidence suggests pay policies work better as part of a comprehensive strategy for recruiting and retaining enough staff to care for older people and disabled people.

‘Alongside a workforce strategy, social care needs wider reform and investment, including to improve people’s care and protect against high care costs. Whoever becomes the new Labour leader must make this an early priority, accelerating the work of the Casey Commission. The problems in social care are well known – as are options for funding reform. Currently, many people go without the care they need, and reliance on unpaid carers is high. After decades of political failure, the next prime minister has an opportunity to show decisive leadership and finally deliver the reforms needed to improve millions of people’s lives.’

the chief executive of The NHS Alliance, Sir Ciarán Devane, said:

“A strong social care sector is crucial to solving the challenges facing the NHS and achieving the government’s ambitions – including preventing ill health, moving care closer to people’s homes and getting healthy patients out of hospital more quickly.

“Perceptions of low pay and long hours have led to huge gaps in social care staffing, so it is encouraging now to see vacancy rates in social care falling.

“However, the figures also show there could be further trouble ahead with falling numbers of UK-trained staff and a sharp decline in new international recruits.

“We hope that the Casey Review of social care will build on the recent progress to tackle recruitment and retention challenges, and we urge the government to accelerate the review and move quickly to implement any recommendations.”

Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity, said:

“This report is good news, and we should say so. A vacancy rate at its lowest in a decade is the result of hundreds of thousands of people choosing this work, often for far less than it is worth. But Skills for Care are right to be honest about what holds that progress up. We have grown the workforce from overseas while the number of British care workers has fallen by 130,000 in five years, and the visa route that made that possible has now closed. At the same time, we are asking the international care workers already here to wait 15 years for indefinite leave to remain, which is a long time to ask someone to hold their life in place. The way to build a stable workforce is to make care a job people can afford to do, and to give the people already doing it a fair route to settle. We are ready to work with Government, employers and commissioners to turn this progress into something that lasts, and to bring care workers into shaping the plan that does it, through our Care Worker Advisory Board.”