Skills for Care published their latest data on The size and structure of the adult social care workforce in England in July.
The annual report forms a key chapter in ‘The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report, which is published in October each year, and demonstrates workforce supply and demand trends.
The report, which looks at data collected in the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) from the period from April 2023 until March 2024 and changes in the workforce over time, reveals that the total number of adult social care posts increased last year.
There were 1.84 million adult social care posts in 2023-24, which represents an increase of 2.7% from the previous year.
The number of adult social care posts that were filled also increased last year, from 1.635m in 2022-23 to 1.705m. This is an increase of 4.2%, or 70,000 posts. Subsequently, the number of vacant posts fell by 22,000 (14%) to 131,000 vacant posts.
International recruitment aids care workforce recovery
This increase in filled posts and drop in the adult social care vacancy rate was mainly driven by international recruitment, after senior care worker roles were added to the shortage occupation list in February 2022.
The size and structure of the adult social care workforce report reveals that around 105,000 people arrived in the UK during 2023-24 and started working in direct care providing roles in the independent sector. This was an increase of 25,000 from the previous year.
International recruitment is also thought to have contributed to a decrease in the turnover rate in the independent care sector, which has fallen from 30% to 26%. The turnover rate for international recruits is around 15% lower than the turnover rate for care workers recruited from within the UK.
In the report, Skills for Care states: “Workforce supply and demand is a key issue for the adult social care sector. In recent years, workforce supply has experienced significant fluctuations due to policy changes and external factors.”
Widespread increase in filled care posts
The increase in filled posts over the last 12 months represents the largest seen since Skills for Care began their records in 2012-13.
Filled posts increased across most of the sector, with data showing:
- Independent sector care homes with nursing saw filled posts increase by 5.3%, or 15,000 posts
- Care homes without nursing increased their filled posts by 2.4%, or 7,000 posts
- In Independent sector domiciliary care services, the number of filled posts increased by 7.9% or 43,000 posts
- Local authorities saw filled posts increase by 3% or 3,500 posts
There was, however, a decrease in the number of personal assistant posts last year, with filled posts in this role falling by 5%.
Care workforce vacancy rate remains high
Although the increase in filled posts has obviously contributed to a corresponding fall in the number of vacant posts, the vacancy rate still remains high compared to historical levels and other sectors.
In 2023-24, the vacancy rate was 8.3%, falling from 9.9% the previous year and a record-breaking high of 10.6% in 2021-22. But this is still around three times the overall UK vacancy rate, which currently stands at around 2.8%.
In fact, the adult social care vacancy rate is currently higher than the NHS (6.9%), the economy as a whole and many other individual sectors, such as construction, education and retail.
In their report, Skills for Care says the data demonstrates “that some recruitment difficulties in the sector persist despite decreases in the vacancy rate over the past two years.”
Domestic recruitment a key challenge for the sector
Their data also shows how adult social care vacancies are directly impacted by the number of jobs available in the wider economy. In short, when there are more jobs available across other sectors, fewer adult social care posts get filled.
In the report’s summary, Skills for Care explains:
“Domestic recruitment remains a challenge for the sector with the number of posts filled by British people decreasing by around 70,000 over the previous two years. The high availability of jobs in the wider economy is also contributing to this decrease. These jobs are often higher paid and perceived to be less demanding than adult social care roles.”
They also reveal that changes to immigration rules introduced in March 2024 will result in much lower levels of international recruitment in the adult social care sector during 2024-25, which could negatively impact the number of filled posts, vacancy rates and turnover rates.
Skills for Care notes “it will be challenging for the sector to continue to grow in-line with demand in 2024-25.”
Monthly tracking data is also available for recruitment and retention variables, international recruitment and filled posts information. Skills for Care provides reports and visualisations relating to the adult social care workforce on their Workforce Intelligence website.
Essential training for the adult social care workforce
First Response Training (FRT) is a leading national provider of high-quality training services.
They deliver health and safety, first aid, fire safety, food safety, health and social care, mental health and other special focus courses.
They can offer training via face-to-face, classroom style learning, interactive e-learning, live online webinar sessions or distance learning manuals and can also offer public courses at their venues across the UK.
Their extensive health and social care range is mapped to national occupational standards, the Care Certificate, the Skills for Health Core Skills Framework and relevant legislation and further guidance.
All courses are also based on the values of person centred care.
A health and social care trainer for FRT says:
“Adult social care workers are key workers; they provide a valuable service in this country and are a dedicated, passionate bunch.
“As a workforce, they need continued support and training to be able to continue to fulfil their challenging but rewarding roles.”
For more information about any of the training courses that FRT can offer, please contact freephone 0800 310 2300 or info@firstresponsetraining.com.