If you’re in the business of hiring care workers, or act as a recruitment company supplying agency staff to residential nursing/care homes and homecare providers, then now is the time to take stock of the biggest challenge faced by the care sector for decades, staff retention.
Since 2012/13 the sector has fundamentally changed. At that time care workers were better paid than many other low paid professions but by 2019/20 the gap had narrowed, and some are paid more. That’s not to say that sector pay hasn’t increased in real terms, it has, but it has not kept pace with other sectors such as supermarkets, cleaning and warehouse operatives.
Evidence further shows that as unemployment falls vacancies in the care sector rise, probably because other sectors are more attractive. Currently there are estimated to be around 112,000 vacancies in social care which at 8.2% is nearly twice the national rate of the whole economy and significantly higher than the 4.4% back in 2012/13.
And it’s not only the slower pace of salary increase that is at work here. Two other key components affect the availability of individuals interested and willing to work as care professionals.
