Responding to The King’s Fund’s annual social care review, RCN Director for England Patricia Marquis said:
“Record demand for services and the second ever highest social care workforce vacancy rate paints a picture of a sector simply unable to meet the needs of an ageing population with increasingly complex needs.
“Low and uncompetitive pay is driving rampant workforce shortages, with skilled staff able to find better paying jobs in sectors outside of care. The number of registered nurses working in care has fallen by over a third in a decade, meaning there are fewer highly qualified, expert staff in all care settings. When this happens, patient safety is put at risk.
“As the number of domestic care staff has plummeted, international workers have stepped in, helping to prop up a system that has been undervalued and ignored by successive governments. Ministers have now chosen to exacerbate the workforce crisis by preventing overseas care workers from bringing family members to the UK. This is political point scoring being prioritised over patient care.
“As the general election approaches, parties vying to form the next government need to demonstrate they value care and bring forward robust plans to fix the crisis in the sector and ease the strain on the NHS and other health services.
“Fair, competitive pay, a strategy to boost recruitment into the domestic care workforce and support for migrant staff are all desperately needed in social care, as is an iron-clad commitment to deliver long-term investment in the sector.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
The King’s Fund references Skills for Care findings that the number of registered nurses working in social care fell sharply from 51,000 in 2012/13 to 33,000 in 2022/23. This is a drop of 35%.
Last October, a report from Skills for Care also exposed an eyewatering turnover rate for registered nurses in social care – around three times higher than the NHS.
