Skills for Care, the workforce development body for adult social care in England, has published the first ever adult social care sector Workforce Strategy. The previous government had refused to develop a strategy or be involved, so Skills for Care, in collaboration with a number of other organisations, went ahead without government involvement.
Now Skills for Care and its collaborators, the CQC, representatives of care workers, employers, local authorities, Integrated Care Systems and people who draw on care and support, and the health and education sectors, hope the new government will take note of the strategy and move quickly on improving pay, conditions and training for social care staff.
The Workforce Strategy publication comes as the Labour government stated in the King’s speech that it will consult with the sector on introducing a fair pay agreement to set pay, terms and conditions in social care. But there was little else by way of reform for the adult social care sector in the speech.
Professor Oonagh Smyth, CEO of Skills for Care and co-chair of the Workforce Strategy Steering Group, said:
“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.”
For many years, social care has struggled to attract or keep enough staff. The latest data for 2023-24, show 131,000 vacancies on any given day, a vacancy rate of 8.3%, which was around three times the average for the economy. Although vacancies have fallen it is primarily due to international recruitment.
Retention is a major issue, with over a quarter of people leaving their jobs in social care each year and around a third of them leaving the sector altogether. There is also a high proportion of over 55s at 29% of the workforce who could retire in the next decade.
Skills for Care notes that the number of people aged over 65 is expected to grow by almost a third in the next decade and as a result the country could need 540,000 new social care posts by 2040. There is also a projected increase in the number of people aged 18-64 with a learning disability, mental health need or a physical disability.
The Workforce Strategy covers the next 15 years and is designed to complement the NHS plan, published in June 2023. As in the NHS plan, the strategy covers attracting and retaining staff; training; and transformation. Although the previous government was not involved, the report contains recommendations for the current government including:
- 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.
It is no surprise that the poor pay in the social care sector is a major part of the report; research published in June found that nearly half of care workers in England earned less than a real living wage.
The sector is also heavily reliant on foreign workers, with one in three new starters providing care recruited internationally.
Relying so heavily on international recruitment is “precarious” noted Lucinda Allen, Senior Policy Officer at the Health Foundation, in light of “the tightening of Care Worker Visa rules and the new government’s pledge to reduce immigration levels.”
The Workforce Strategy has modelled three different options for improving the pay of social care staff: 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.
These options give an annual level of state investment that ranges 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, the strategy notes that all the options would generate considerable savings for the NHS and reduced recruitment costs for employers.
The workforce strategy also contains recommendations for others in the sector including the development of workforce strategies by Integrated Care Systems.
The adult social care sector has made a series of commitments, as well, including the CQC encouraging good workforce planning by care providers and Skills for Care streamlining mandatory training for care workers.
There are commitments from a coalition of organisations, including the Care Provider Alliance, ADASS, Local Government Association, Care Workers Charity, unions and Skills for Care, to support employers with guidance on prioritising staff wellbeing and tackling workplace harassment and violence.
The publication comes at the same time as a joint report from The Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation that calls for the introduction of national pay banding to tackle low pay in adult social care and encourage key workers to stay in the industry.
The two think-tanks have called on Labour to immediately crack down on illegal underpayment of wages, and urgently consult on introducing a separate, higher minimum wage for social care and a national pay scale.
Lucinda Allen, Senior Policy Officer at the Health Foundation said:
“There is growing consensus that the government needs to do more to improve wages for people working in social care. To help address the high vacancy rates in the sector and high levels of poverty among staff, care workers must be better rewarded for their vital work. Pay is not a silver bullet; improvements to wider employment conditions are also needed.
“Beyond boosting staff pay and conditions in social care, the new government must enact wide-ranging reforms to improve access to care, better support unpaid carers, and protect people against care costs. Successive governments have broken promises to fix the funding system for social care. Labour’s new government has an opportunity to finally reform social care, improve care worker pay and leave a lasting legacy for the future.”
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