ADASS responds to ‘The state of the adult social Care sector and workforce in England’ report 23/24

In response to Skills for Care’s ‘The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report for 2023/24, Anna Hemmings, CEO of ADASS, said:

“The increase in the number of people in direct care roles is positive, but the high churn of recently recruited staff, particularly among our domestic workforce, remains a barrier to developing the skilled and experienced workers needed to support growing numbers of us living with illness and disability.  

“This (high turnover of staff in social care) is no surprise given over 30% of people are on unstable zero hours contracts, wage levels are lower than equivalent NHS roles, and people’s increased experience, responsibility and skills aren’t rewarded with meaningful pay increases.

“While we’ve relied heavily on overseas staff to prop up our care system in recent years, the number of new international recruits is now dwindling, making it more urgent than ever that the Government makes the improvements to pay and conditions needed to encourage domestic workers into a career in care.

“To start properly valuing our workforce, ADASS is calling on the Government to nationally fund paying care workers, the majority of whom are women, above National Living Wage.”

On training and qualifications

She added: “The report also shows care workers undertaking training and qualifications are more likely to stay in the job, reducing turnover and associated recruitment costs, as well as improving quality and standards across social care.

“Following the decision to scrap £50 million planned funding to train thousands of care workers, we are calling on the Government to commit to a long term, funded care workforce strategy to ensure we have a care workforce to meet our increasing need for care and support.”