Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy

Please find the new Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England, which Skills for Care has developed in collaboration with the sector.

This strategy comes at a crucial point of change and outlines where we are now, the drivers and case for change, and the essential changes needed to build a sustainable workforce for the future. 

The Strategy is: 

• Authoritative – led by Skills for Care, with over two decades of experience as a system leader for adult social care, with input from an unprecedented range of organisations including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, Integrated Care Systems, local authorities, care providers, and organisations representing people who work in and draw on care. 

• Comprehensive and holistic – bringing together recruitment and retention, pay, immigration, training and system transformation. 

• Deliverable – with commitments from organisations already in a position to take action, and realistic recommendations designed to be mindful of public finances and cost-neutral wherever possible. 

The launch of the Strategy coincides with the release of the annual Size and Structure of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England data for 2023-24.

Here are some of the key points from this new data: 

• The workforce grew for the second consecutive year to 1.71 million filled posts – an increase of 4.2%, or 77,000 filled posts. 

• The number of vacant posts on any given day fell by 22,000 to 131,000 – a vacancy rate of 8.3%, which is still around 3 times that of the wider economy. 

• International rather than domestic recruitment was the main driver of the increase in filled posts and the fall in vacancies. There were 105,000 international recruits – an increase of 25,000 on the previous year, and the number of posts filled by people with a British nationality has fallen by 70,000 over the last two years.