Social care report highlights need for workforce plan to help lay the foundations for a National Care Service
Responding to the annual Skills for Care State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England report, Lucinda Allen, Senior Policy Fellow at the Health Foundation, said:
‘Today’s report lands at a pivotal moment, with the prime minister prioritising social care reform and promising change for care workers. Vacancies have dropped but longer-term workforce pressures remain, with growth slowing as numbers of both British staff and new international recruits fall.
‘The number of internationally recruited workers in social care dropped by 40% from 2024 to 2025. This is partly down to the closure of the care worker visa route, showing how policies focused narrowly on reducing immigration can negatively impact people’s health and care services. Current proposals to make migrant care workers wait much longer to qualify for UK settlement could exacerbate recruitment challenges.
‘Social care pay remains stubbornly low, with a quarter of care and support workers paid around the minimum wage. Government plans for new Fair Pay Agreements in social care are an important part of tackling this issue. The policy’s success will rely on having the right incentives in place, including for providers to comply with new rules and staff to stay and progress in the sector.
‘Evidence suggests pay policies work best as part of a wider strategy for recruiting and retaining enough staff, including measures to support training, oversight of workers and ethical international recruitment. So, it is welcome that the Secretary of State recently promised a government-led workforce plan for social care, which would be the first since 2009. While the prime minister’s ambition for care to be free at the point of use is unlikely to be realised in this parliament alone, government should begin laying the foundations for a National Care Service now to show progress. A strong and supported workforce is one of the cornerstones on which those reforms will be built.’
Media contact
Jessica Clinkett
jessica.clinkett@health.org.uk
020 7664 4647