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Since September 2020, the number of vacancies in health and social care have increased across the UK, this means that there are more vacant jobs and less carers to fill these vacancies. In October 2022, the strategic workforce development and planning body for adult social care in England, Skills for Care, published its latest analysis of the adult social care workforce in England. It found that fewer posts had been filled and more existing posts were vacant since 2020/21. The report also shows that vacancy rates have increased from 3.8% to 10.7% since 2013. This means that the vacancy rates are now at the highest rate since records began and means on any given day there are around 165,000 vacancies in health and social care across the UK.

How can we improve staff shortages in health care?

This high vacancy rate is an opportunity to recruit more people to work in a job that is not only rewarding and increasingly valued by the public, but it offers long-term career opportunities. It is a priority to promote the importance of carers and improve the pay and quality of the roles. We can do this buy supporting people on social care to develop in their careers. Social care requires much more complex skills than it did even 10-years ago as they support people with more complex needs and so investing in learning and development is essential. Based on the 2022 report by Skills for Care, investing in learning and development reduces the average turnover rate for care workers by 9.5%. The data in this report clearly shows investing in workforce learning and development works.

How did the pandemic affect the health and social care vacancies?

At the beginning of the pandemic there were fewer jobs available in the wider economy, the report shows in total there were 340,000 vacancies across the UK. This contributed to a fall in vacancy rates in adult social care as people who were made redundant or lost their jobs during the pandemic took up roles in the care sector and fewer people left their care roles. During the COVID-19 pandemic the wider community also better understood the commitment and skills of the care workforce and resulted in a step change in how society values social care, the people who draw on social care and the people who provide it. With the UK almost “returning to normal” post pandemic, the wider community have moved on with their lives and the admiration and appreciation may not be as strong for those not connected to the sector as it once did during the pandemic. This might make carers feel undervalued and it is our responsibility as a community to promote this appreciation and encourage companies and organisations with care vacancies to show this through pay, benefits, flexibility, learning and development.

How can we help you as a carer looking for a new role?

Although our organisation has recently launched our new health and social care sector, we have a team that specialise in health and social care and have experience in finding the right role and shifts to suit you, and in return will value you and support you through every step. We are not just a recruitment company we are a support network for you.

Contact us today to see how we can truly help you find the work that suits you:

zach@busybeerecruitment.co.uk /maya@busybeerecruitment.co.uk