The State of the Adult Social Care Workforce in England

Our previous reports have been used to inform key decisions made by government, employers and our sector partners about the care and support that people in our communities draw on. It was good to see last year’s report described by the Office for National Statistics as ‘the most comprehensive publicly available source of workforce statistics for the adult social care sector in England.’

Data provided by thousands of employers to our Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set show that this year we did see some improvements in workforce capacity - largely driven by an increase in international recruitment - including more filled posts, fewer vacant posts and lower turnover.

The report also highlights the ongoing trends and challenges for the sector in terms of workforce capacity which paints a picture of the short and long-term.

We should see this as an opportunity – an opportunity to have more people work in rewarding roles and be developed and supported to remain. We also cannot forget that adult social care adds £55.7 billion per annum to the economy in England - which makes us one of the key drivers in the national economy. That’s up by 8.5% from 2021/22, and the economic contribution of employers and people who work in care is more than the accommodation and food service industries. Far from adult social care being a drain on resources, we are key to the economies of local communities and in economically deprived areas.

For us to make the most of the opportunities available to us, there are things that we need to do and that starts with understanding the current state of play.

Source: The State of the Adult Social Care Workforce in England 2023

While the workforce grew by 1% in 2022/23 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 - with around a third of them leaving social care completely and the rest getting new jobs within social care.

If we look over the last decade, we can see that the longer-term trend is that our vacancy rate is significantly higher than that of the wider economy. This highlights today’s challenges – not enough people working in adult social care overall, too many people leaving the sector and too many people churning in the sector which disrupts continuity of care and support and uses precious resources.

If we then raise our eyes up and look to tomorrow, if the workforce grows in line with demographic changes, we are going to need an extra 440,000 roles by 2035 and we have 440,000 posts filled by people who will reach retirement age in the next 10 years.

What that tells us is that we cannot get enough people today, we are losing a lot of experienced staff, and we are going to need a lot of additional people working in social care in the medium to long-term. And let’s not think that 2035 is far away, it will come quickly. 12 years ago, Prince William married Catherine Middleton – to me, that does not feel very long ago.

We are seeing some changes in the supply of the workforce in this year’s report, with employers relying more on international recruitment since care workers were placed on the Shortage Occupation List in February 2022. Between April 2022 and March 2023, an estimated 70,000 people arrived in the UK and started direct care providing roles in the independent sector. This is a substantial increase in international recruitment on previous years - 20,000 in 2021/22 - and it has played a part in the increase in filled posts and reduction in vacant posts seen in this report. We do some more analysis of this in the report.

Our report does not just point out the issues though – we try hard to identify and point to the solutions too. Some of these solutions are things that Skills for Care is and can do, and some are solutions for partners including employers. One example is the brand-new insight that we have this year into what works when it comes to keeping people working in social care.

Source: The State of the Adult Social Care Workforce in England 2023

We identify five factors that are key to retaining adult social care staff. They are:

• 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, care workers 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%. Implementing these factors should make it easier for the people who love what they do to stay, by improving terms and conditions and investing in their career development.

That, and other analysis in this report is why, as the strategic workforce development body for adult social care – with over 20 years of experience – Skills for Care will be leading the creation of a new workforce strategy to help tackle the challenges all of us face and to identify the solutions that we can all commit to. This strategy will only work if it’s created by the many organisations and people that have a stake in the future of adult social care – so we’ll be working with a wide range of partners.

While most of the statistics that people focus on are around workforce capacity, there is a lot more in the report than this. We look at the qualification levels of the workforce which are reducing at the same time as the ambition for qualifications for people working in social care is increasing with the introduction of the Care Certificate as a Level 2 qualification. Apprenticeship numbers are concerning and an area that we need to focus on in the future because this is a key way to develop our teams.

We look at the demographics of the workforce, including the growth for the first time on record of the proportion of men working in social care from 18% to 19% (mostly driven by international recruitment) - and the need to recruit more younger workers with only 8% of the workforce aged under 25 compared to 12% of the economically active population.

We’re working with the Government and social care employers to develop a number of initiatives to encourage younger people to join, and remain, including apprenticeships and a project to attract new demographics into care.

It’s good to see some green shoots this year and, as always, we are grateful to the 20,000 care providing locations that have continued to give us their data, as we know they are working under pressure.

But the long-term trends and ongoing challenges underline the need for a workforce strategy for adult social care, to complement the sector reform agenda and long-term workforce plan for the NHS that was published earlier this year. I hope our new workforce strategy will help make sure that the efforts of all our employers who offer care services, and the people who work in care supporting those who draw on care and support, are properly recognised.