A new national recruitment campaign to help fill the 110,000
vacancies in the adult social care sector has launched.
The ‘Every Day Is Different’
campaign will show how rewarding social care careers
can be – 96% of care professionals feel their work makes a
difference to people’s lives. It will also highlight the
opportunities for progression and professional development.
The campaign aims to:
- attract new people with the right values to the sector
and increase interest in adult social care as a vocation
- highlight the range of job roles, with an initial focus
on direct care roles such as care workers, where there is the
most demand
- equip the social care sector with the marketing tools to
support the campaign and advice to recruit and retain the
right people, to address a high turnover rate.
Over 1.45 million people work in the sector at the moment. It
is predicted an additional 650,000 workers will be needed by
2035 to keep up with the rising numbers of people aged 65 and
over.
Working in adult social care is about providing personal and
practical support to help people live their lives.
People who work in the sector could be supporting the elderly
or people with a physical disability, autism, dementia or a
mental health condition. This could mean working in:
- a care or nursing home as a care worker
- your local community as an activities co-ordinator
- a hospital as an occupational therapist
- someone’s home as a personal assistant
The campaign has been developed in close collaboration with
the adult social care sector and will run during February and
March through social media, digital and local radio
advertising, outdoor posters and events across England.
Advertising will feature real care workers and the people
they support. The aim is to attract a diverse range of
people, but the campaign will have a focus on people aged 20
to 39. Research suggests that this group is the most likely
to consider a role in adult social care in the next 12
months.
Adult social care providers will be encouraged to engage with
the campaign by providing case studies, advertising their
vacancies on DWP Find a
Job and promoting social media content using the
hashtag #shareifyoucare. Materials will also be available to
providers to equip them with information and assets to
support the campaign locally.
Minister of State for Care said:
Adult social care is too often seen as the ‘Cinderella
service’ to our NHS. I’m determined to change this
perception, starting with our hardworking social care
workforce.
There is huge demand for more care professionals who work
incredibly hard to look after the most vulnerable people in
our society. We must spread the word that careers in adult
social care can be rewarding, varied and worthwhile. Care
is a vocation where you can transform people’s lives and
every day is different to the next.
Our national recruitment campaign will support care
providers to recruit thousands more talented people. If you
think a career in care could be for you, I urge you to look
up the opportunities in your local area and become part of
a vital and growing profession.
Sharon Allen, CEO of Skills for Care said:
I have spent my whole career in adult social care, so I
know first-hand the tremendous professional and personal
satisfaction that is on offer to anyone who joins us
through this campaign.
This campaign will help employers find people who have the
right personal values that will make them great care
workers and that means people in our communities will be
supported by highly motivated and skilled workers.
