Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Set out plan to lead sector in addressing chronic adult social care workforce challenges.
Conclusion
Notwithstanding its recent efforts to make adult social care a more attractive career, the Department has still not produced a convincing plan to address the chronic staff shortages in the long-term. Workforce vacancies in adult social remain worryingly high with some places, such as rural areas, particularly affected. In 2022–23, workforce vacancies exceeded 152,000 (9.9% vacancy rate) despite overseas recruitment of 70,000 staff. Proposed visa restrictions and risks of exploitation raise significant questions about the Department’s reliance on overseas staff in future. Given these significant challenges and numerous, repeated calls for a workforce strategy, we find the white paper’s coverage of the workforce woefully insufficient to the scale of the task. It does not tackle all the significant factors impacting recruitment and retention. For example, there is scant detail on pay. Neither does the white paper provide detail on workforce plans beyond 2025 despite the Department’s forecasts that the number of adult social care jobs will grow by almost one-third by 2035. Once again, we see one approach for the NHS and another for adult social care. While we welcome the Department’s plans to professionalise the workforce, it falls short on providing leadership on pay and ensuring parity of esteem with equivalent NHS roles. Reforming adult social care in England 7 Recommendation 4: In the absence of an NHS style workforce plan, alongside its Treasury Minute response, the Department should write to the Committee setting out how it will lead the sector to identify and address workforce challenges, including: • achieving a sustained reduction in the number of vacancies in the sector (beyond 2025) • addressing the challenges and risks associated with international recruitment • tackling local variations in vacancy rates • addressing issues around disparity with NHS pay • assessing which workforce initiatives are most effective for recruiting and retaining staff.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees but states it has already published its workforce strategy in 2021 and an updated plan in 2023. It reports a decrease in vacancy rates and highlights existing investments in recruitment, retention, workforce training, and support for ethical international recruitment initiatives.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented In 2021, the department published its workforce strategy in Chapter 5 of People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform and in 2023 published the subsequent plan Next Steps to put People at the Heart of Care. The overall vacancy rate in ASC was 9.9% in 2022-23, a decrease of 11,000 vacancies (-0.7 percentage points) compared to 2021-22. Skills for Care indicative monthly data (unweighted data) for independent providers shows since then the vacancy rate has fallen to 8.1% in February 2024. The department is investing in recruitment and retention through a number of reforms aimed at professionalisation including significant investment in workforce training and through the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund, which includes a focus on workforce pay. Alongside implementing wider changes to the immigration system, the department has clear ethical standards laid out in the Code of Practice for International Recruitment, which covers both health and care sectors. The department has invested £15 million in 2023-24 to support local initiatives to increase and improve international recruitment in the adult social care sector.