Many more adult care apprentices needed

It’s essential that the apprenticeship workforce in adult social care is increased significantly to secure future supply – and therefore sustainable care services – at a time when demand for personalised care and support is rising, the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI) has said.

However, the body warned that the public had negative perceptions of social care and there were concerns over the quality of apprentices’ education and experience.

As the percentage of elderly people in the population increases, there will be a growing need for care services and many agencies providing such services are taking on apprentices on pay that starts at £2.60 an hour.

A report produced by the CfWI – working with the National Care Forum (NCF) and the Institute of Vocational Learning and Workforce Research (IVLWR) at Buckinghamshire New University – said that apprentices are central to the government’s plan to increase the number of apprentices starting in social care to 100,000 by 2017.

The CfWI’s head of social care Rhidian Hughes said: “The growth of social care apprentices is a major [government] priority and our report emphasises the size and scale of the workforce planning challenges ahead.”

And the NCF’s executive director Des Kelly commented: “It is vital that we recruit more young people to work in the care sector. The development of the apprenticeship model is therefore an important step.”