Turning Point For Social Care As The Sector Launches A Workforce Strategy

The launch of a new Workforce Strategy for adult social care in England today is being hailed as a turning point for care – as new data shows the sector still has a vacancy rate around three times higher than the wider economy.

The Workforce Strategy aims to improve the quality of roles in adult social care, ensuring that the sector can attract and keep enough people with the right skills and values to provide the best possible care and support for the people who draw on it.

Skills for Care – the workforce development body for adult social care in England – has led the development of the Strategy, in collaboration with a wide range of organisations and people with a stake in the future of the sector. These include the Care Quality Commission and representatives of care workers, employers, local authorities, Integrated Care Systems and people who draw on care and support – along with organisations from the health and education sectors.

The Strategy highlights the impact of social care on improving lives – as well as its role in supporting economic growth, with the sector currently contributing almost £60 billion a year to the economy. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, has asked the Department of Health and Social Care to expand its focus on boosting economic growth.

The Workforce Strategy is designed to complement the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which was published last year. Its three areas of focus are attraction and retention, training and transformation, in line with the main themes of the NHS Plan.

Like the NHS Plan, the Workforce Strategy covers the next 15 years. Skills for Care’s latest data shows that we will need 540,000 additional social care posts by 2040 if the workforce is to grow in line with the increase in the number people over the age of 65 in the population. That number is expected to grow most sharply over the next decade, so we will need 430,000 extra posts by 2035.

The Strategy was not commissioned by government, but the sector wants to work with the new Government as it develops its plans for social care, to take the ambitions from the Strategy, prioritise them and implement them.

The sector would also like government support for a regular review of the Strategy, to keep a focus on this core workforce.

Recommendations for government include: 

• Leading joined-up and consistent action to improve pay, terms and conditions for care workers.
• Continuing to invest consistently in training and clear career pathways.
• Introducing legislation to mandate strategic workforce planning and create a central body – outside of, but directed and supported by, government – to drive delivery.

The Strategy includes independent modelling of three different options to improve pay: increasing compliance with the National Living Wage and paying care workers for travel time, a minimum wage for carers of the Real Living Wage or £1 or £2 above the National Living Wage – and aligning with NHS pay bands.

The level of annual state investment needed to improve pay varies from £30 million for increasing National Living Wage compliance and paying for travel time – to £4 billion for aligning pay for care workers with 2 or more years’ experience to NHS pay band 3. However, all the options would generate considerable savings for the NHS and in terms of reduced recruitment costs for employers.

Recommendations for others in the sector include: 

• Skills for Care, local government, NHS Employers and partners should support Integrated Care Systems to develop their own workforce strategies.
• The Council of the Deans of Health should ensure adult social care is reflected in higher education.
• The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) should focus more of its research on social care and disseminate more of its work to the sector.

The Strategy’s recommendations feature alongside a series of commitments from the adult social care sector. Among these: 

• The Care Quality Commission (CQC) will encourage good workforce planning by care providers.
• Skills for Care will streamline mandatory training for care workers and the CQC will share appropriate guidance.
• Skills for Care, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and partners will create a development framework for Directors of Adult Social Services in local authorities.
• A coalition of organisations, including the Care Provider Alliance, ADASS, Local Government Association, Care Workers Charity, unions and Skills for Care, will support employers with guidance on prioritising staff wellbeing and tackling workplace harassment and violence.
• The Workforce Strategy Delivery Board, which will replace the Strategy’s steering group, will gather evidence on the likely impact of creating a professional register for care workers – and how this could work.

The Strategy is being launched as new workforce data from Skills for Care – also published today – shows that, between April 2023 and March 2024: 

• The adult social care workforce in England grew for the second consecutive year to 1.71 million filled posts – an increase of 4.2%, or 77,000 filled posts.
• The number of vacant posts on any given day fell by 22,000 to 131,000 – a vacancy rate of 8.3%, which is around 3 times that of the wider economy.
• International rather than domestic recruitment was the main driver of the increase in filled posts and the fall in vacancies.
• There were 105,000 international recruits – an increase of 25,000 on the previous year.
• The number of posts filled by people with a British nationality decreased by 30,000 – which is a drop of 70,000 over the last two years.
• The total number of people working in adult social care – as opposed to posts – was 1.59 million. This is 5.4% of all jobs in England.

Professor Oonagh Smyth, CEO of Skills for Care and co-chair of the Workforce Strategy Steering Group, said:
“Today is a turning point for social care, the people who work in it and the people who draw on it. Thanks to more than 20 years of leadership and strong relationships across the sector, Skills for Care has been able to bring together an unprecedented group of people and organisations to create something that will help to tackle some of the most profound challenges we face.

“The case for change is clear. We’re going to need hundreds of thousands more care workers, with the right skills and values, over the next 15 years – yet right now the sector still has a vacancy rate around three times higher than that of the wider economy and is struggling to compete in local job markets.

“A Workforce Strategy isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have if we’re going to build the workforce we need for the future. As the Prime Minister noted during the election campaign, reform of social care needs to start with the workforce – so we’re looking forward to working with the Government on the areas where their support will be crucial to bringing this game-changing Strategy to life.

“Social care – and the skilled professionals who work in it – enables people to live well and drives economic growth. This Workforce Strategy takes us a step closer to protecting and properly valuing that vital role.”

Sir David Pearson, co-chair of the Workforce Strategy Steering Group, said:
“The Workforce Strategy is the most important initiative in social care at the current time. It covers the essential things we need to do, so that we have a confident, capable and motivated workforce for the future. The people of this country need all the organisations to work together to deliver it, including the government, local government, regulators and employers.

“It’s been a remarkable process of development and I’ve been honoured to co-chair, seeing first-hand the commitment and passion from people and organisations with a stake in the future of the sector coming together.

“The launch is just the first step and I feel excited about the implementation of the Strategy and the benefits for social care services in this country.”

The full Workforce Strategy is available at www.ascworkforcestrategy.co.uk.