The care sector will need to fill 540,000 additional social care posts by 2040 to cope with the ageing population, adult social care workforce body Skills for Care has estimated.
Skills for Care’s Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England warned that although the vacancy rate in the sector had fallen by 8.3%, it was still three times higher than that of the wider economy. This has led to increasing pressure being placed on NHS services.
The number of people over 65 in the UK is expected to grow most sharply over the next decade, which means 430,000 extra posts will be needed by 2035, according to the workforce strategy.
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Professor Oonagh Smyth, CEO of Skills for Care and co-chair of the Workforce Strategy Steering Group, said: “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.”
The strategy set out measures to improve the attractiveness of the sector to workers, calling on ministers to improve pay and terms and conditions for care workers, invest in training, and introduce legislation to mandate strategic workforce planning and create a central body to drive delivery.
Kathryn Smith, chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence, commented: “Better pay is only one step forward. Taken together, the strategy’s recommendations have the potential to shift the dial in how we value care work.”
The number of social care posts that were filled in 2023-24 had increased by 4.2% when compared with 2022-23 – the largest increase that Skills for Care has recorded since it began collecting this data a decade ago. This was primarily the result of care worker roles being added to the shortage occupation list at the end of 2021.
Earlier this year, the then Conservative government replaced the shortage occupation list with an immigration salary list. This only has 21 roles on it, down from 54 on its predecessor. Care workers remain on the list. Those care workers from other countries wishing to work in the UK having received their certificate of sponsorship after 4 April 2024 must be paid a minimum of £30,960 pro rata (£15.88 per hour). Those who received the certificate before the 4 April must be paid £23,200 (£11.90 per hour).
Since March 2024, care workers can no longer bring family members to the UK – a policy that the new Labour government has said it will not reverse.
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The Labour government has pledged to create a Fair Pay Agreement that will allow for the collective negotiation of better pay and conditions in the sector.
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