The latest report from Skills for Care reveals that the adult social care vacancy rate in England is at its lowest level in a decade as the workforce grows.
Skills for Care published their latest Size and structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England report last month.
The annual report is compiled using data from Skills for Care’s Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS), which includes information on more than 750,000 people from across more than 21,000 care-providing locations.
The data helps Skills for Care to establish a national picture of the adult social care workforce and supports planning, policy development and decision-making across the sector.
Adult social care workforce continues to grow
The report reveals that the workforce continued to grow for the fourth consecutive year in 2025-26, with 22,000 more filled posts. This represents a growth of 1.4%. While this is still an increase, Skills for Care cautions that it is also the slowest growth rate for the last four years.
The national workforce development charity says that the vacancy rate fell to 6.2% last year, which is the lowest rate since 2015-16.
Last year’s vacancy rate equates to around 96,000 vacancies on any given day across the sector, which is a drop of 10.5% on the previous year.
Despite this positive progress, vacancy levels in the adult social care sector are still around three times higher than within the wider economy, and this highlights the continued challenges associated with recruitment and retention in care.
Although the number of filled posts in adult social care grew last year, the number filled by people of British nationality fell by 40,000. Since 2020-21, they have fallen by 130,000.
Skills for Care says that, while the number of non-British workers has increased, the removal of a dedicated international visa route for care workers means that the number of new international recruits coming directly from abroad fell to 30,000 last year, which is the lowest level in four years.
Long-term challenges for the adult social care sector
Despite growth in the workforce, data trends indicate ongoing long-term challenges for the sector.
Skills for Care says that, in order to meet the needs of an ageing population, the adult social care sector is projected to need an additional 410,000 posts by 2040. With growth slowing, a fall in domestic recruitment and international recruitment effectively curtailed, this could provide difficult.
CEO of the charity, Oonagh Smyth, said it was “encouraging” to see that the vacancy rate had fallen and that the care workforce had continued to grow.
She added:
“This reflects the hard work and commitment of employers across the sector to attract and retain staff in a challenging environment.
“However, the longer-term picture remains difficult. Vacancy rates are still significantly higher than the wider economy, domestic workforce numbers are falling and there is no dedicated visa route for international recruitment – all of which highlight the scale of the challenge ahead.”
She called for a “long-term, collective approach,” and said Skills for Care was working with partner organisations to develop a 10-year plan for the adult social care workforce.
Training and support for adult social care
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.