Report: Care workers – Building the future social care workforce (SCIE)
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A new paper from the Social Care Institute for Excellence looks at three hypothetical future scenarios, and how the sector might respond to the challenges and opportunities those scenarios offer in relation to recruiting, training and retaining care workers.

‘Care workers: building the future social care workforce’, which was based on discussions with key stakeholders and forms part of a wider research project supported by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, suggests that the following actions could attract more skilled care workers – whatever economic or political scenario the sector may face:

  • Change the brand and language of care and support: Terms like ‘social care worker’ may no longer best describe the complexity of the role
  • Develop and promote portfolio careers, with more flexibility and opportunities that reflect people’s lifestyles (e.g. returning to work after bringing up families)
  • Attract care workers from outside the UK, especially if Brexit leads to a fall in EU workers. This could be done in partnership with the NHS
  • Co-ordinate local recruitment across health, care and related areas such as housing within specific areas – such as Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas
  • Introduce user-led training which focuses on the values that are important within social care. A new nationally sponsored, but locally managed, training programme, led and delivered by people who use services, may be a useful approach.

Speaking about the issue, SCIE Chief Executive, Tony Hunter (pictured) said: “Care workers perform one of the most important roles in our society – and the reality is we are going to need a lot more of them in the future. We need to be ready to respond to the opportunities and challenges that major changes – such as a reduction in supply of care workers – may present.

“Stakeholders, including Skills for Care, who attended a recent SCIE event identified the need to be more flexible about career pathways – so long as we attract the right people, with the right values. We will continue to work with sector leaders to develop and share potential approaches. We are also exploring how we can develop a programme of user-led recruitment and training with partners.”

The paper will be accompanied by a series of blogs from care providers who are developing innovative ways to manage workforce challenges. John Craig, Chief Executive of Care City, provides the first blog. Based in East London, Care City aims to attract local people into the care sector