The care sector is under threat unless the Government acts immediately, Care England has warned. According to Skills for Care, the attrition rate for residential carers is over 31.5% and 40.6% for nurses, highlighting significantly low staff retention within the industry.
Care England warns that a multitude of factors will prevent workers from joining the care industry and in turn, this will have implications for the NHS. Many care companies cannot afford to compete with the NHS or retail who can pay higher wages.
The Unfair to Care report published by Community Integrated Care in July 2021 reported that social care workers are being undervalued by nearly £7,000 per year compared to their peers working in the NHS and other public-funded sectors. Care England is calling for an increase in pay in the sector to improve social care recruitment and retention, circa £5 per hour.
Martin Green, Chief Executive, of Care England, said: “Transformational reform of the workforce is required to impose a new reality. This is necessary not only to address the immediate pressures but also the long-term, systematic issues.
"With the Government reporting a 38-year low in unemployment and the adult social care sector seeing an all-time high in vacancy levels, up 52% to 165,000 in the last 12 months, with an attrition rate in excess of 30% and reaching over 40% for care homes with nursing care. There is a desperate and immediate need for significant increases in funding to keep pace with the cost-of-living crisis, to help retain staff and to help inject both domestic and overseas recruits into the sector ahead of catastrophic failure caused by government underfunding."
Between 2020/21 and 2021/22, the number of vacant posts has increased by 52%, from 55,000 to 165,000. The impact of this is bed blocking in the NHS and potential delays in getting people into care homes.
Due to social workers and financial assessors being in short supply, 540,000 people have been left waiting for assessments, a 37% increase since November 2021. A recent report also finds the number of care workers must increase by more than a quarter (27%) by 2035 to maintain the current level of demand.
