Recommendation 11

Nursing students cover both health and social care in their training and decide which sector to work in after they graduate. This means that social care providers recruit from the same overall pool of nurses as the NHS. The Department noted that approximately 80% of nursing graduates join the NHS and the other 20% start work in social care, primary care or the independent sector, or do not practise as nurses. It acknowledged that there are currently around 4,000 vacancies for social care nurses.19 As Skills for Care has reported, the vacancy rate for nurses in social care has increased from 4.1% in 2012–13 to 9.9% in 2018–19.20 The Royal College of Nursing also noted that the number of registered nursing posts in social care has fallen by 1,000 in the last year and by 10,400 (20%) since 2012–13.21