The new national Workforce Strategy for adult social care in England has been described as a “call to action” which provides a “long-term vision” for the sector.
The sector-led Workforce Strategy has been developed by Skills for Care in collaboration with other social care bodies and stakeholders, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), care workers, employers and local authorities.
Launched last month and hailed as “the most important initiative in social care at the current time,” it is designed to improve the quality of roles in adult social care to ensure that there is a healthy, skilled and empowered workforce in place to deliver high quality, compassionate and safe care to those who need it.
Workforce Strategy designed to boost recruitment and the economy
With one of its main areas of focus being training, the Workforce Strategy is designed to help attract and retain the right workers with the right skills and values in a sector which still has a vacancy rate around three times higher than the wider economy.
It highlights the important role that adult social care plays in improving lives and boosting economic growth in England.
In fact, the sector currently contributes around £60 billion a year to the national economy and the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, has now asked the Department of Health and Social Care to place greater focus on supporting economic growth.
As well as ensuring that the adult social care sector is properly valued, the Workforce Strategy is designed to complement the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which was published in 2023, and give “parity of approach” with healthcare. Like the NHS Strategy, it spans the next 15 years and comprises three main areas of focus in line with the NHS priorities, which are:
- Attraction and retention
- Training
- Transformation
Skills for Care’s most recent data suggests that England will need an additional 540,000 social care posts by 2040 if the workforce is to grow in line with an ageing population. The number of people over the age of 65 in the population is expected to grow most sharply over the next decade, meaning 430,000 of these extra social care posts will be required by 2035.
Skills for Care wants government support for Workforce Strategy
Although the Workforce Strategy was not commissioned by the government, Skills for Care and its strategy partners are keen to work with the new government as it develops plans for social care, ensuring that priorities in the Strategy are implemented and that the strategy is regularly reviewed.
They propose that the government should interact with the new Workforce Strategy for adult social care by:
- Leading joined-up and consistent action to improve pay, terms and conditions for care workers
- Continuing to invest consistently in training and clear career pathways in care
- Introducing legislation which makes strategic workforce planning mandatory and establishes a central body – independent of government but directed and supported by them – to ensure delivery
The Strategy models three different options to improve pay for adult social care workers:
- Increase compliance with the National Living Wage and pay care workers for travel time
- Set a minimum wage for carers which is equivalent to the Real Living Wage or is £1 or £2 above the National Living Wage
- Align pay for care workers with NHS pay bands. This includes the suggestion that care workers with 2 or more years’ experience should receive pay equivalent to NHS pay band 3.
These options require anything from £30 million to £4 billion in annual state investment but all are calculated to generate considerable savings for the NHS and in terms of reduced recruitment costs for employers.
Workforce Strategy recommendations for the sector
The Workforce Strategy also incudes a number of recommendations for other bodies within the sector. These include for Skills for Care, local government and NHS employers and partners to support Integrated Care Systems (ICS) to develop their own workforce strategies. It also states that the Council of Deans of Health should encourage universities to reflect adult social care.
The adult social care sector has also made a series of commitments within the Strategy. These include:
- The CQC will encourage care providers to undertake good workforce planning
- Skills for Care will streamline mandatory training for care workers and the CQC will share appropriate guidance about this
- Skills for Care, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and partners will create a development framework for Directors of Adult Social Services in local authorities
- Skills for Care will form a coalition of organisations with bodies such as the Care Provider Alliance, ADASS, Local Government Association, Care Workers Charity and unions will support employers with guidance on prioritising staff wellbeing and tackling workplace harassment and violence
- The Workforce Strategy Delivery Board, which will replace the Strategy’s Steering Group, will collate evidence on the likely impact of creating a professional register for care workers and the logistics of this
Workforce Strategy is a ‘must-have’ for adult social care
Skills for Care published their latest data on the size and structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England on the same day they published the new national Workforce Strategy for adult social care. It shows that, between April 2023 and March 2024, the adult social care vacancy rate stood at around 8.3%,which is around 3 times that of the wider economy.
The data also reveals that 1.59 million people currently work in adult social care, which equates to 5.4% of all jobs in England.
The CEO of Skills for Care and Co-chair of the Workforce Strategy Steering Group, Professor Oonagh Smyth, said the strategy marked a “turning point for social care […].”
She added:
“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 complete 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. As the Prime Minister noted during the election campaign, reform of social care needs to start with the workforce – so we’re looking forward to working with the Government on the areas where their support will be crucial to bringing this game-changing Strategy to life.
“Social care – and the skilled professionals who work in it – enables people to live well and drives economic growth. This Workforce Strategy takes us a step closer to protecting and properly valuing that vital role.”
Meanwhile, her co-chair, Sir David Pearson, said:
“The Workforce Strategy is the most important initiative in social care at the current time. It covers the essential things we need to do, so that we have a confident, capable and motivated workforce for the future. The people of this country need all the organisations to work together to deliver it, including the government, local government, regulators and employers.”
Wide sector support for long-term vision for care
The Workforce Strategy has been widely supported across the adult social care sector, with the Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care at the CQC, James Bullion, describing it as “a call to action” for care sector bodies to ensure “a healthy, skilled and enabled workforce now and in the future to continue delivering high quality and compassionate care.”
Jane Townson, Chair of the Care Provider Alliance and CEO of the Homecare Association agreed that it is vital to “prioritise making care an attractive, rewarding and long-term career opportunity.”
She added:
“We welcome the long-term vision set out in this Workforce Strategy and look forward to working with the new Government, Skills for Care and other care partners to develop and deliver a clear, costed long-term implementation plan.”
Essential training for adult social care
First Response Training (FRT) is a leading, national training provider.
They deliver over 6,000 courses each year in the fields of health and safety, first aid, fire safety, food safety, mental health, health and social care and other special focus topics.
Their diverse portfolio includes training awards designed for care workers, such as Infection Control and Prevention, Safeguarding Adults, Duty of Care, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Person Centred Care and Support and many others.
Their course portfolio spans Care Certificate standards, mandatory training awards, clinical skills, special focus courses and higher level training for supervisors and managers.
A Trainer at FRT, says:
“We know that care workers do an incredible, invaluable job and we welcome any initiative that will help make this more widely recognised and make the sector as good as it can be.
“As the priorities of the Workforce Strategy make clear, staff training is key to successful recruitment, retention and support of adult social care workers and will help ensure a good quality of life for those receiving care and support, now and in the future.”
For more information on the training provided by FRT, please call them on freephone 0800 310 2300 or send an e-mail to info@firstresponsetraining.com.