UK Labour Supply Inquiry submission
Views from the social care workforce following a Social Care Workforce Survey on labour changes within the sector.
We submitted a report to the Economic Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the recent reduction in the UK’s labour supply. We know from our work in social care, that the sector is currently experiencing a staffing crisis. Here at Coproduce Care, we felt that it would be extremely important to gather the views of the social care sector on their experiences of the issues being faced around staff shortages including the recruitment, and retention of staff into social care.
We asked the social care workforce what they believe to be the main causes for the decrease in the social care workforce since the pandemic, specifically regarding retention and recruitment.
90% said wages are one of the biggest factors in recruiting and retaining social care staff with responsibilities, work conditions, value of the work, and the high levels of stress in the role not being reflected in the pay workers receive, which is exaggerated with the current cost of living crisis.
Brexit and the emigration of social care workers back to the EU has been significant, with care workers annual salary not meeting the minimum requirements to ensure residency status.
We also asked how they think these challenges compared to other sectors, with many answering that the problems with social care are highly unique due to the nature of the work, public perception of what the job entails and the shrinking work force leading to more pressure on current staff which leads to burn out.
We concluded with recommending that a pay increase for social care staff would improve all areas of recruitment and retention, by ensuring staff feel valued for the work they do, increasing interest to the sector for a career, and also increasing the annual salary of care workers which would meet the requirements for migrant workers to meet residency status.