The Nuffield Trust responds to Skills for Care's State of the
Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England report and
the introduction of the Employment Rights Bill.
Commenting on the Skills for
Care report, Nuffield Trust Deputy Director of Policy Natasha
Curry said:
“This latest report again highlights
the sheer size and immense societal and economic value of
England's social care sector, which employs nearly 1.6 million
people in crucial caring roles and contributes more than £68bn to
the English economy. But despite its value,
the sector remains in peril and
today's outlook must serve as a wake-up call for government to
get to grips with the future of social care.
“The average vacancy rate in social
care is still nearly three times higher than the national
workforce average and, concerningly, care worker pay remains
among the lowest in the economy, with 80% of jobs paying more.
Meanwhile, the sector's necessary dependence on international
recruitment looks increasingly fragile, as
the number
of applications from workers overseas
has fallen dramatically over recent months, likely accelerated by
visa changes.
“The sector will need another 540,000
workers by 2040 to keep up with need. Shoring up its workforce
with overseas recruits is not a sustainable solution and the
government needs to act now on the issue. Skills for Care's
existing workforce strategy is a great place to start –
government needs to urgently fund and support that strategy,
working closely with the sector and stakeholders, to join up the
dots on workforce development, pay and wider service improvement
and integration to ensure we have a social care sector fit for
the future.”
Anticipating
today's presentation of the Employment Rights Bill before
Parliament, she added:
“This draft legislation presents a much-needed opportunity
to act on some of the pervasive issues that blight social care
recruitment and retention, and the promise of a dedicated
Fair Pay Agreement
for social care will be a long-overdue
and vital first step in improving sector pay.
“However, boosting rights
and pay in isolation will not magically fix deep-rooted, complex
issues across the sector. We need a holistic, joined-up approach
as part of wider social care reform. Widespread illegal pay must
be tackled, workers need to be able to earn more over their
careers, and the government must put in more funding to cover the
costs of higher pay, otherwise councils and care providers will
simply be pushed into bankruptcy.”
Ahead of an October 10 House of Lords
debate on the state of social care in England, the Nuffield
Trust has also issued a
detailed briefing for policy makers. Read
it here.
