International recruitment has helped reduce vacancies in adult social care in England over the past year, but a workforce strategy is needed to fix the sector’s ‘leaky bucket’, according to Skills for Care.
A report that examines the state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England has found that although vacancies were down 7% in April 2022 to March 2023 and overall headcount increased marginally compared with the previous year, the sector is still not attracting enough people to meet future demographic needs.
By 2035, the workforce development and planning body estimates that an extra 440,000 roles will be needed – equal to the number of people currently employed by the sector who will reach retirement age in the next 10 years.
Care sector workforce strategy
Adult social care is largely being propped up by international recruitment. In 2022/23, 70,000 posts were filled by overseas candidates, compared with 20,000 in 2021/22 and 10,000 in 2020/21. Care workers were added to the shortage occupation list for visas in February 2022.
The report said international recruitment “has played a part in the increase in filled posts and reduction in vacant posts”. However, it found that many social care employers were still not recruiting from overseas due to the perceived costs, risk and paperwork.
While the workforce grew by 1% and vacancy rates reduced from 10.6% to 9.9%, there were still 152,000 vacant posts a day and 390,000 people left their roles last year. Around a third of these leavers left the sector completely.
Chief executive Oonagh Smyth said: “The fact that 390,000 people left their jobs in 2022/23 and around a third of them left the sector altogether shows that we have a leaky bucket that we urgently need to repair.
“We can’t simply recruit our way out of our retention challenges. So, we need a comprehensive workforce strategy to ensure we can both attract and keep enough people with the right skills to support everyone who draws on care and support – and all of us who will draw on care and support in the future.”
The report suggested that the rising cost of living has prompted employees to seek roles in other sectors, particularly those in domiciliary care who are required to travel between people’s homes.
A care worker in an independent, private sector role earned on average £10.34 an hour for a 37-hour week, it found. The national living wage in 2022 was £9.50 an hour, but rose to £10.42 in April.
Care workers had an estimated turnover rate of 35.6%, but this fell to 15.3% among senior care workers who often have higher pay, guaranteed hours and more training and qualification opportunities, the report said.
Skills for Care identified five factors key to retaining adult social care staff:
- Being paid more than the minimum wage
- Not being on a zero-hours contract
- Being able to work full time
- Being able to access training
- Having a relevant qualification.
Where none of these factors apply to a care worker, they are more than twice as likely to leave their jobs than when all five factors apply – a 48.7% turnover rate compared with 20.6%.
Sir David Pearson, former president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and who led the government’s Covid-19 Social Care Taskforce, said: “Millions of people depend on over 1.5 million social care workers every day. It is a huge privilege to help lead the work with Skills for Care in developing a comprehensive workforce strategy to build on the government reforms and the work of local government and social care providers in local services.”
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of employer body Care England, said: “Government must urgently heed the warnings in this report. International recruitment is currently propping up the sector. We must use this report to inform a renewed drive to recruit and retain domestically. A new approach is needed, and it has been for quite some time.”
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