Responding to the 2022 Skills for Care report on the adult social
care workforce, Simon Bottery, Senior Fellow at The
King’s Fund, said: ‘These figures are evidence of the
absolute crisis social care faces when trying to recruit staff, a
crisis that has profound consequences for people needing care.
‘Last year saw – for the first time- an actual fall in the number
of people working in the social care sector. Despite increasing
demand for services, around 50,000 fewer people worked in social
care last year and there were 165,000 care worker vacancies, the
equivalent to 1 in every 9 posts being unfilled, and the highest
since records began.
‘A key reason for that is pay, which continues to lag behind
other sectors including retail and hospitality, as well as
similar roles in the NHS. Our recent
analysis1 found that nearly 400,000 care workers
would be better paid working in most supermarkets.
‘A sustained lack of funding has left us with an adult social
care system that is failing the people who rely on it, as well as
the people who work in it. The social care sector relies on the
dedication of skilled, caring individuals working hard in
increasingly challenging conditions. As staff shortages continue
to heap unstainable pressure on an already stretched workforce,
we risk spiralling into a vicious circle that makes it ever
harder to fill these vacancies.
‘Whilst the new government’s
announcement of additional funding to support discharging
people from hospital into social care is welcome, social care is
much more than a release valve for NHS pressures. A short-term,
short-notice pot of cash is not going to help social care tackle
long-term problems like unmet need, quality of care, or staff
recruitment and retention. A major part of the solution is a
better paid and trained workforce with real career progression.
That in turn requires the sustainable funding, long term
workforce plan and other reforms that social care has long been
promised but have yet to materialise.’
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Recent analysis by The King’s Fund found that in June 2022
nine out of the 10 largest supermarkets were paying a higher
hourly rate than the average social care worker receives:
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2022/08/how-social-care-struggles-compete-supermarkets-pay
