A 15 year workforce strategy is to be developed for social care by Skills for Care, the workforce development body, in an effort to address the ongoing crisis in the workforce. The plan, which will be similar to that unveiled for the NHS in June 2023, will be developed in collaboration with several other organisations, including the King’s Fund, but NOT with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which has ignored repeated calls for such a plan.
The aims of the plan are to improve reward, progression and recognition for staff, and enhance workforce planning, so the sector has sufficient workers with the right skills to meet future needs and enable better integration with the NHS. Projections from Skills for Care show that England 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.
The announcement coincided with the publication of the annual Skills for Care State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England study, which looks in depth at the situation with staffing in social care across England and Wales.
And comes hot on the heels of the report – Carenomics – published by the Future Care Coalition, a cross-party pressure group that includes former ministers, unions, charities, and employer organisations, which focused on the economic positives that a properly funded social care system could provide.
Full story in The Lowdown, 20 October 2023
