Skills for Care has published its annual State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England report - and announced plans to develop a new and comprehensive workforce strategy for adult social care. 

In the South West, there were 14,500 vacancies on any given day in 2022/23. This was a vacancy rate of 9.6%. The region's vacancy rate for 2022/23 was lower than the national average. There were 174,000 filled posts in the region. But the region's turnover rate was 32.2%, which was higher than the national average.

The report covers the year from April 2022 to March 2023, which saw some improvements in workforce capacity - largely driven by an increase in international recruitment - including more posts being filled, fewer vacancies and less turnover. 

The report also highlights ongoing trends for the sector, including 390,000 people leaving their jobs - with around a third of them leaving the sector altogether. 

This year's report gives brand new insight into what works when it comes to keeping people working in adult social care. It identifies five factors that are key to retaining staff. They are: 

• being paid more than the minimum wage 
• not being on a zero-hours contract 
• being able to work full-time 
• being able to access training 
• having a relevant qualification. 

Where none of these factors apply, care workers are more than twice as likely to leave their jobs than when all five factors apply – a 48.7% turnover rate compared with 20.6%. 

While this analysis looked at the independent sector, the importance of good quality roles, development and stability will also be important for people employed by local authorities. These include the 23,500 social workers or 3,800 occupational therapists who work in social care and the broader commissioning workforce, all of whom are an essential part of how social care functions.  

Other key findings in the report include: 

• The workforce grew by 1% between April 2022 and March 2023 after shrinking for the first time on record the previous year. 
• The vacancy rate fell to 9.9% - around 152,000 vacancies on any given day – from 10.6% the previous year. 
• Monthly tracking since March suggests that the vacancy rate has continued to fall, and in August was 8.4% among independent sector care providers. In independent sector care homes, the vacancy rate fell to 5.1% in August, which was below pre-pandemic levels (5.5% in 2019/20). 
• The turnover rate across the sector was 28.3% in 2022/23 – down slightly from 28.9% the previous year. This means around 390,000 people left their jobs. Around a third of them left the sector altogether. 
• Adult social care added £55.7 billion per annum to the economy in England (up 8.5% from 2021/22) – which is more than the accommodation and food service industries. 
• On average, care workers with five years' (or more) experience in the sector were paid just six pence (0.6%) more per hour than care workers with less than one year of experience. 
• For the first time on record, the proportion of men working in the sector increased from 18% to 19%. 
• Only 8% of the workforce was aged under 25 - compared with 12% of the economically active population. 
• The number of registered nurse filled posts increased by 2% in 2022/23 to 33,000. 
• Between March 2022 and March 2023, an estimated 70,000 people arrived in the UK and started direct care providing roles in the independent sector. 
• Projections show that we will need 25% more posts (440,000) by 2035 if the number of adult social care posts grows proportionally to the projected number of people aged 65 and over in the population. 

In response to those trends, Skills for Care, as the strategic workforce development body for adult social care in England, will be working with a wide range of organisations and people who have a stake in social care, to develop a workforce strategy. 

The strategy will identify the social care workforce needed over the next 15 years and 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. 

Skills for Care CEO, Oonagh Smyth, said:

"It's good to see green shoots for the sector and workforce in our latest report – which is testament to the hard work that's gone into tackling the recruitment and retention challenges we face. But the challenges haven't gone away. 

"In particular, the fact that 390,000 people left their jobs in 2022/23 and around a third of them left the sector altogether shows that we have a leaky bucket that we urgently need to repair. We can't simply recruit our way out of our retention challenges. So, we need a comprehensive workforce strategy to ensure we can both attract and keep enough people with the right skills to support everyone who draws on care and support - and all of us who will draw on care and support in the future.  

"We'll be using the expertise, data, insights and relationships we have developed over the last 20 years to develop that strategy. Given the rich diversity of the sector, any strategy will only be successful if it's created by the many organisations and people that have a stake in the future of social care, so we'll be working with a wide range of partners who are willing to embrace and drive the changes we need. 

"As always, we are grateful to all the employers who contribute their data to give us a very clear picture of what is happening in our sector, and what needs to happen to fully meet the needs of people who draw on care and support in our communities." 

Sir David Pearson, who is co-chairing the steering group for the strategy with Oonagh Smyth, said:

"There is nothing more important in helping to provide high-quality care and support in this country than in ensuring we have in place a confident, capable and caring workforce, now and in the future. 

"Millions of people depend on over 1.5 million social care workers every day. It is a huge privilege to help lead the work with Skills for Care in developing a comprehensive workforce strategy to build on the government reforms and the work of local government and social care providers in local services. 

"We want to make sure that the voices of all parties, particularly those who have experience of social care services, are driving this strategy."