Recruitment challenges in social care

Skills for Care (2019), the strategic workforce development and planning body for adult social care in England, has stated that an estimated 18 500 separate organisations employing a total of 1.49 million people are involved in providing or organising adult social care across England. Dodsworth and Oung (2023) reported that, across the four countries of the UK, there are shared challenges around recruitment and retention of the workforce, linked to poor pay and conditions and perceptions of the attractiveness of the sector.

Skills for Care summarised the role of the registered nurse in social care as enjoying:

‘… high levels of professional autonomy and responsibility. This supports confident and innovative practice together with strong clinical decision-making. The multi-faceted nature of their role means they also develop a wide range of transferable expertise with the need to be flexible, resourceful, and creative in finding solutions to short, medium- and longer-term care and business needs.’