Plans for a new workforce strategy for adult social care announced today (12 October) by Skills for Care will identify the social care workforce needed over the next 15 years.
The announcement comes as Skills for Care publishes its annual report on the state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England. It shows that a third of registered nurses working in the independent adult social care sector have left their roles during the past year. By comparison, registered nurses and health visitors in the NHS have a turnover rate of 11%.
Skills for Care, the strategic workforce development body for adult social care in England, will be working with a wide range of organisations to develop the workforce strategy.
Patricia Marquis, RCN Director for England, said: “A new workforce plan to recruit and retain staff needs heavy central government investment. Social care is buckling under the pressure of too many people needing support, longstanding underfunding, and consequently not enough nursing staff.
“The turnover rate for registered nurses exposed in this report is eyewatering – at three times higher than the NHS – and the sector must ask itself the very tough questions about why that is the case,” she added. “It is unsustainable and unsafe for the people who rely on services.”
As well as highlighting a retention crisis in the sector, with a vacancy rate of 11.3%, the Skills for Care report shows there was a rise in the number of nursing posts being filled via international recruitment.
Patricia added: “Today’s gaping hole in the domestic adult social care workforce means services are only just staying afloat because of staff recruited from overseas.
“Chronic short staffing is leading to over-stretched services, nurse burnout, sickness absence – and ultimately people leaving social care or the profession altogether. Their pay is often too low, and terms and conditions are poor – our members in social care, just like the NHS, deserve fair pay and the rates must at least match Agenda for Change.”
The RCN, as the voice of nursing, Patricia said, has the expertise to support the development of this work and we expect to see very broad consultation and engagement of the College and the professionals we represent.
The Skills for Care strategy will set out a plan for ensuring the sector has enough of the right people with the right skills. It will help employers and commissioners with workforce planning, support the government’s reform agenda and complement the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan covering the same period, which was published earlier this year.
