Social workers are the least likely adult social care staff group to feel valued or that they are making a difference to the people they support, government-commissioned research has found.

As a result of this, and other indicators, such as how safe and autonomous staff feel in their role, social workers have the lowest work-related quality of life of any part of the adult social care workforce in England, according to the survey of 7,233 staff, including 502 social workers.

The research, by Ipsos, Skills for Care and University of Kent, was designed to help the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) understand levels of wellbeing in the adult social care workforce and how this was shaped by working conditions.

Though it was carried out from August to October 2023, the survey results were only released at the end of February 2025.

Measuring workforce wellbeing

The researchers designed a measure, the adult social care outcomes toolkit – workforce (ASCOT-workforce), to capture the impact on quality of life of working in the sector.

This comprised 13 questions: making a difference, relationships with the people cared for, autonomy, time to care, worrying about work, self-care, safety, professional relationships, support in the role, competency, career path, financial security and feeling valued.

The research team calculated a combined score – known as the care work-related quality of life (CWRQoL) – from respondents’ answers, and found that social workers had the lowest average score of all staff groups (20.69), compared with an overall average of 23.30.

Social workers have lowest quality of working life

Social workers’ score was slightly below nurses and nursing associates’ (20.89) and significantly lower than those for all other groups. For example, senior care workers averaged 22.67, occupational therapists 23.17, registered managers 24.72 and personal assistants (PAs) 26.82.

This was driven by social workers’ responses across several domains, with the report revealing that:

• 69% of all staff felt able to make “as much difference as I would like” or “some difference” in their roles, but 41% of social workers felt the same, the lowest of any group.
• Social workers were the most likely to say that their role was “not valued at all” or “not valued as much as I would like by others”, with 72% feeling this way, compared with 41% of all staff.
• Almost two-thirds of all staff (65%) felt they had “as much freedom and independence as I want” or “adequate” freedom, but this fell to a half (51%) for social workers, the lowest of all groups.
• Just under half of all staff (48%) said they had the time they needed or adequate time to do their jobs well, but this rose to over three-quarters (78%) for social workers, also the worst group score.
• Three in ten social workers (30%) said they did not have enough time to do their job well and this was having a negative effect on them, twice the workforce average (15%) and higher than other job roles.
• 54% of all staff said they rarely or sometimes felt unable to look after themselves at work, compared with 64% of social workers, a proportion only exceeded by nurses/nursing associates.
• 14% of all staff – but 28% of social workers – said their relationships with people with care and support needs were not good. Only nurses/nursing associates (31%) scored worse than social workers in this domain.
• Just over half of staff (52%) often or constantly worried about work out of hours, but this was true of 62% of social workers. Two groups had a worse score than social workers on this domain: registered managers (77%) and deputy or other managers, team leaders or
  supervisors (67%).
• 17% of social workers said they did not have all the skills and knowledge they needed, compared with 11% of staff overall.

Experiences of violence, bullying or harassment

Half (49%) of the workforce had experienced or witnessed physical violence from the people they cared for or supported in the previous 12 months. In this domain, social workers’ score (34%) was below average, with nurses and nursing associates (65%) and senior care workers (63%) carrying the most risk.

However, social workers were more likely than average, or any other group, to have experienced or witnessed harassment, bullying or abuse from the people they cared for or supported in the previous 12 months, with 58% reporting this compared with 46% of all staff.

Social workers were also more likely than average to have experienced or witnessed physical violence from family members or friends of people they cared for or supported (20% as opposed to 13%) or from the public (15% versus 9%).

Most social workers ‘often consider leaving employer’

Reflecting these results, most social workers (59%) reported often thinking about leaving their organisation or employer, above the average for the whole workforce (50%).

However, social workers had more positive scores in relation to learning, development and stimulation at work than other groups.

Almost nine in ten (88%) agreed that their organisation offered them challenging work, compared with 55% of all staff, while over half of social workers (54%) said there were career development opportunities within their organisations, compared with 39% of all respondents.

In addition, over two-thirds of social workers (68%), compared with 56% of the whole sample, said they had opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills, and almost half (46%) said they felt supported to develop their potential, compared with 39% of the workforce overall.

Experienced care workers were earning just 4p per hour more on average than newcomers to the sector as of December 2024, according to new Skills for Care data.

This is the smallest pay gap between independent sector care workers with five or more years’ experience and those with those less than a year’s service yet recorded in a data series dating back to 2016.

Then, experienced care workers earned 33p per hour (4.4%) more on average than newcomers, but the gap has fallen significantly since, dropping from 10p to 4p per hour from March to December 2024.

Shrinking pay gap between senior care workers and junior colleagues

Skills for Care’s latest report on independent sector pay also showed that the differential between care worker and senior care worker salaries had reached its lowest level yet recorded – 6%, down from 8% in March 2024 and a high of 11% in March 2017.

Median pay for senior care workers stood at £12.75 per hour in December 2024, compared with £12.00 per hour for care workers, said the report.

The squeeze in pay progression appears to have been driven by the impact of growth in the national living wage (NLW), now the wage floor for those aged 21 and over, on a low-paying sector such as adult social care. Since the NLW’s introduction in 2016, real-terms median pay has grown by 26.2% among the bottom tenth of independent sector earners and by just 14.1% among the top tenth.

Providers’ challenge in meeting living wage rises

The NLW has increased sharply over the past two years, from £9.50 to £10.42 per hour in April 2023, a rise of 9.7%, and then to £11.44 last April (9.8%). This has meant that independent care workers have received average real-terms pay rises of 5.4% and 7%, respectively, in each of the past two years, said Skills for Care.

However, it added that some employers had reported that keeping up with changes in the NLW had been challenging, alongside their other business costs.

This is likely to become more challenging still next month, when the NLW grows by a further 6.7%, to £12.21 per hour, and employers must also meet the costs of significant increases to their national insurance contributions (NICs).

Skills for Care found that 58% of independent sector adult social care workers – about 780,000 staff – were earning less than the forthcoming NLW (£12.21 per hour) as of December 2024 – meaning they would benefit from next month’s rise. This includes about 575,000 care workers.

Much of the rest of the workforce is likely to receive a pay rise too because of the need to maintain pay differentials as far as possible.

Costs of NLW and national insurance hikes

Think-tank the Nuffield Trust has calculated that the rises in the NLW and NICs combined will cost independent sector providers an additional £2.8bn in 2025-26, with councils expected to fund £2bn of this to cover the services that they commission.

However, dedicated adult social care funding for councils in England is due to rise by approximately £1.2bn in 2025-26.

“Many councils cannot cover the rise in employment costs and we are worried this will increase the risk of non-compliance with the minimum wage,” said Homecare Association chief executive Jane Townson, in response to the Skills for Care figures.

Townson criticised the government’s decision last week to overturn a House of Lords vote to exempt adult social care providers from the NICs rise.

‘A direct threat to the quality of care’

For Care England, which represents independent sector providers, chief executive Martin Green said: “Care providers are caught between rising wage costs and insufficient money to fund them. Many are already struggling to recruit and retain staff, and with further financial pressures, the situation is only going to worsen.

“This is not just a problem for the providers themselves – it is a direct threat to the quality of care that millions rely on”.

By Deborah Rozansky, Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

Reablement services play a critical role in maintaining people’s independence and quality of life. Most frequently used to support people’s recovery after a hospital stay, reablement can also be preventive, reducing the need for hospital admissions or long-term residential care.

However, our research has shown that reablement is misunderstood, potentially preventing people from fully benefiting from it. Inconsistent staff training, varying levels of family support and limited access to appropriate services and equipment also play a role.

Last year, we published evidence-based and practical recommendations for reablement commissioners and providers, developed by researchers from the University of York, to tackle these barriers and ensure more people receive the high-quality support they need and deserve.

Boosting staff training and morale

A significant barrier the researchers identified relates to the training of reablement staff, who include assessors, support workers and, in some cases, occupational therapists or physiotherapists.

Reablement is not just about assisting with daily tasks, but also involves understanding what motivates each individual and tailoring support accordingly, to achieve the person’s goals.

To do this well, staff need comprehensive training in the core principles of reablement – specifically promoting independence, motivational interviewing and working within multi-disciplinary teams.

Proper investment is needed for staff training to achieve the culture of care that supports reablement. Regular check-ins and open communication channels that help staff problem-solve, share best practice and build confidence are also important.

Another significant barrier to success is low staff morale. While some sources of low morale are beyond the control of managers, there are steps services can take. These include involving staff in review processes, acknowledging their expertise in supervision meetings and keeping them updated on service performance, thereby helping them feel supported and valued, which in turn can lead to better outcomes for those receiving care.

Setting goals

When staff fail to involve individuals in setting their own goals, or when goals are unrealistic or too vague, their engagement with the reablement process suffers.

A two-step approach to assessment and personal goal-setting can help individuals feel more engaged in the process.

The initial assessment should introduce broad goals that align with the core principles of reablement, such as improving mobility or rebuilding confidence in daily tasks. A follow-up assessment should then refine these into more focused, personalised objectives that reflect the individual’s specific needs and priorities – being able to make a cup of tea or climb the stairs, for example.

Progress should be documented clearly – ideally being displayed in the home where individuals and their families can see it – and reviews should be structured around it to ensure goals remain meaningful and individuals stay motivated.

Engaging families

Lack of family support is another significant barrier. Family members may not always fully understand their role in the reablement process or may be reluctant to support it due to safety concerns around increasing independence.

First and foremost, staff should have open conversations with families to address any concerns, clarify relatives’ roles and ensure they feel confident in supporting the reablement process.

Involving them directly – encouraging them to celebrate progress and reinforce goals, for example – can make a real difference, where it is appropriate to do so.

If safety is a key concern, staff can also provide reassurance by signposting family members to fall alarms and other digital tools that offer extra security and peace of mind.

The right equipment

Sometimes, the smallest adjustments make the biggest impact. Something as simple as adapted cutlery can produce immediate results, boosting motivation.

Conversely, lack of access to appropriate equipment can hinder progress and therefore knock an individual’s confidence, discouraging engagement in the reablement process.

Occupational therapists (OTs) are often responsible for assessing and recommending equipment that supports a person’s independence. However, the availability of OT support can vary.

Given this, reablement services must equip non-OT qualified staff – who often have limited knowledge of the options available – with the information they need, to empower them to identify and provide the right equipment in a timely manner.

Resources such as the NHS’s ‘Care services, equipment and care homes’ and Scope’s ‘How to get disability equipment and assistive technology’ can be invaluable. Services could also consider providing staff with a small budget to purchase non-prescribed equipment.

Promoting companionship and connections

For many people, visits from reablement staff aren’t just about practical support – they also provide much-needed companionship.

With reablement services often limited to six weeks, the prospect of losing support can sometimes lead to individuals disengaging from the process.

To prevent this, reablement services should assess individuals’ community networks early on and ensure they have opportunities to reconnect with activities and relationships that enhance their wellbeing.

Involving family members, friends and community contacts can also be invaluable in ensuring loss of companionship doesn’t impact motivation and engagement.

An increasingly vital service

As our population continues to age and care needs become more complex, the role of reablement services in supporting individuals to restore their independence, maintain their wellbeing and enhance their quality of life will becomes increasingly vital.

It’s essential, therefore, that we continuously refine reablement practices and seek opportunities to improve outcomes at every stage.

The work already done by practitioners, researchers and organisations like SCIE provides a strong foundation; now, we must focus on translating this knowledge into practical, everyday actions.

Deborah Rozansky is director of policy, research and information at SCIE

The government has curbed the recruitment of care staff from overseas with adults’ providers in England instead required to prioritise hiring international workers already in the country.

Ministers said the measure, which comes into force on 9 April 2025, was designed to provide work for care staff who had come to England and then been exploited, leaving them without a job.

However, provider leaders warned that the move, along with an accompanying rise in the minimum wage paid to care staff on health and care worker visas, would exacerbate the sector’s recruitment challenges.

This in the context of there having been a sharp fall in the number of staff recruited from abroad following a ban on care workers on these visas bringing dependants with them, which was introduced last year .

Sector’s increasing reliance on overseas staff

That had followed a two-year period in which providers had become increasingly reliant on overseas staff to tackle high vacancy levels, after being permitted to recruit care workers from abroad.

Independent sector providers hired 105,000 people from overseas into direct care roles in 2023-24, up from 80,000 in 2022-23 and just 20,000 in 2021-22, according to Skills for Care figures.

Over that time, the number of overseas staff from outside the EU working in the sector almost doubled, from 140,000 to 300,000, while the number of British staff fell by 70,000, from 1.26m to 1.19m.

Increasing exploitation concerns

However, the growth in the number of overseas care staff was accompanied by widespread reports of workers being exploited, either by employers or agencies recruiting workers from abroad.

The Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), which investigates worker exploitation, said last year that 61% of all concerns it received from April to June 2024 concerned abuses within the UK care sector.

Many workers reported being forced to work excessive hours with the threat that their sponsorship, obtained by their employer to enable them to work in the UK, would be cancelled, said the GLAA.

Others were forced to pay off debts resulting from excessive fees charged by exploiters to secure work, or reported not being properly paid, living in unsuitable conditions while being charged high accommodation fees and, in some cases, being offered no work at all.

Prioritising recruitment of staff who have lost sponsorship

Between July 2022 and December 2024, the government revoked more than 470 sponsor licences from care sector employers because of abuses, preventing them from recruiting from abroad. However, this has left many sponsored staff without a job.

Last year, the then Conservative government announced a £16m fund, allocated to regional partnerships of councils and providers, to help find care roles for these staff and offer them pastoral support.

The government has now gone further by barring providers from hiring care workers or senior care workers from abroad on health and care worker visas unless they have first tried to recruit from among the pool of workers already in England who have lost sponsorship.

Under changes to immigration rules, employers seeking to sponsor a care worker from abroad must provide confirmation to the Home Office from their regional partnership that they have fulfilled this requirement.

Employers will still be able to obtain sponsorship for staff who came to the UK via a different immigration route to the health and care visa, so long as they have already been working for them for three months.

Care workers ‘subjected to appalling exploitation’

At the same time, the government is raising the minimum wage employers must pay staff on a health and care visa from £11.90 to £12.82 per hour. This is above the £12.21 national living wage (NLW) that also comes into force next month.

In a statement announcing the changes, migration and citizenship minister Seema Malhotra said that “too many providers [had] recruited care workers to the UK and failed to provide them with the work they were promised, or have subjected them to appalling exploitation”.

“We have a duty to protect people against destitution, exploitation and modern slavery, and the best way to do so is through secure, properly paid work and employment conditions,” she added.

Requirements ‘will exacerbate recruitment challenges’

However, the Homecare Association said the requirements would “further exacerbate recruitment challenges for home care providers already struggling with an unsustainable commissioning system”.

This is a reference to the gap between the fees paid to providers by NHS and local authority commissioners and the minimum price the association has calculated is needed to meet costs and make an appropriate profit or surplus.

Last year, it identified a £1bn shortfall in commissioner fees and its minimum price in England, which it calculated as being £28.53 per hour in 2024-25.

However, the association’s minimum price has risen sharply for 2025-26, to £32.14 per hour, due to a 6.7% rise in the NLW, an increase in the rate of employer national insurance contributions (NIC) and a lowering of the salary threshold at which companies start paying NICs.

‘You cannot legislate for better conditions without funding’

“The government is imposing immigration restrictions without fixing the broken commissioning system that makes stable employment impossible,” said Homecare Association chief executive Jane Townson.

“You cannot legislate for better working conditions while simultaneously underfunding the services expected to provide them.”

NHS fees for care homes to fund nursing services will rise by 7.7% in 2025-26, the government has announced.

The increase in NHS-funded nursing care (FNC) will benefit more than 75,000 care home residents in England, said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

FNC is designed to fund services provided to care home residents by a registered nurse involving either the provision of care, including performing procedures or administering medicines, or the planning, supervision or delegation of such care.

The latest rise, which follows a 7.4% increase last year, will take the standard rate of FNC from £235.88 to £254.06 per week from 1 April 2025. The higher rate, paid to the relatively few residents who received it when the three previous bands were merged in 2007, will increase from £324.50 to £349.50.

Independent providers’ umbrella body Care England said this was the tenth year in which it had worked with the department to ensure that FNC increases reflected the rising costs of care faced by providers.

‘Threat to sustainability of social care nursing’

However, while its chief executive, Martin Green, said that the 2025-26 increase was “a step in the direction”, he warned that the “sustainability” of nursing in social care settings was under threat.

This was as a result of the upcoming rise in employer national insurance contributions – expected to cost providers in England £940m in 2025-26 – and the “shrinking wage gap” between care home nurses and lower-paid staff, due to above-inflation rises in the national living wage.

Care England chief executive Martin Green

Green also referred to the “increasing burden of delegated healthcare tasks”, under which nurses train and supervise care workers to carry out healthcare tasks, such as injections.

He said the rise in the FNC needed to be followed by integrated care boards increasing the rates they pay social care providers for NHS continuing healthcare (CHC) by at least the same amount. CHC involves the full funding of a person’s health and social care by the NHS on the grounds that they have a “primary health need”.

Green added that, without such a rise in CHC rates, “we risk a system where providers simply cannot afford to provide nursing care, which will add to hospital discharge challenges”.

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

The number of social workers employed by council adults’ services in England has reached a new record high, official figures show.

Local authorities had 19,200 practitioners in post as of September 2024, up 700 (3.8%) on the total 12 months previously and 1,900 (11%) higher than the number in September 2022, showed Skills for Care’s annual report on the council workforce.

While the 2022-23 increase was based on rises in the numbers of both permanent and agency workers, the latest jump was entirely driven by permanent workers, whose numbers grew from 16,250 to 16,950, 88% of the total. The number of agency staff remained steady, at 1,900 (10%), with the remainder (375) being bank staff.

Alongside the rising numbers of staff, the vacancy rate for adults’ fell markedly, from 10.5% in 2022-23 to 8.8% in 2023-24, while there was a fall of a similar scale in the turnover rate, from 14.5% to 12.8%.

Impact of government cash and priorities 

While the number of council adult social services staff has also increased in each of the past two years, the number of social workers has risen at a faster rate.

The rise in staffing numbers is likely to reflect an injection of government grant funding and council tax receipts into adults’ services from 2023-25. As a result, councils increased real-terms adult social care spending by 7.5% (7.5%) in 2023-24 and had budgeted to do so by 9.1% in 2024-25.

Ministers tasked councils with focusing their increased resource on a few priorities: increasing the size of the wider adult social care workforce, boosting fees for providers, reducing the number of delayed hospital discharges and cutting waiting times for services.

The latter two were dependent on authorities carrying out more assessments and arranging more packages of care, incentivising them to recruit more staff, including social workers, to carry out these functions.

Reintroduction of CQC council checks

Another possible factor in the growth of the workforce is the reintroduction of Care Quality Commission checks of local authority performance in relation to adult social care in December 2023.

Social workers, and other assessment and care management staff, are critical to councils’ performance on several of the nine quality statements authorities are judged against, such as those on assessing need and safeguarding.

However, beneath the England-wise rise in social worker numbers over the past two years were significant regional differences.

Regional differences in social work trends

The vast majority of the increase in practitioner numbers came in four of the nine English regions – the East, East Midlands, North West and South West – each of which saw their workforce grow by 400 posts from 2022-24. There was much more limited growth in the North East, South West and West Midlands, London and Yorkshire and the Humber.

The vacancy rate grew in the South West (from 13.5% to 14.5%) and East Midlands (from 13.3% to 13.8%) and was relatively unchanged in the North West (dropping from 12.1% to 11.9%). However, it fell much more sharply than the national average in Yorkshire and the Humber (from 11.8% to 3.4%) and the South East (from 14% to 7.1%).

There was relatively little change in agency worker rates across the different regions. However, the proportion of locums in London – at 29% – vastly outstripped that in the other regions, all of which had a rate that was lower than 10%, with the North East having the lowest, at 1%.

Practitioners’ (mean) average level of experience in their roles was 5.2 years in 2024, down from 5.6 years in 2022, with relatively little difference between regions.

Demographic breakdown of workforce

Meanwhile, the (mean) average age of the adult social work workforce has remained constant, at 45, with a slight increase in the proportion of women, from 82% in 2022 to 83% in 2024.

The proportion of black practitioners has also grown, from 18% in 2022 to 20% in 2024, with a corresponding drop, from 71% to 69% in the share of the workforce who were white, a trend driven by two regions, London and the West Midlands.

In the capital, the proportion of black staff reached 52% in 2024, up from 48% in 2022, whereas the share of white staff fell, from 38% to 32%; in the West Midlands, the share of black staff rose from 16% to 22%, whereas the proportion of white social workers dropped from 66% to 59%.

By contrast, in the North East, the share of white staff has remained constant, at 94%.

The proportions of staff who were Asian (7%), of mixed ethnicity (3%) or of other ethnicity (1%), has remained constant, nationally, from 2022-24.

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Social care leaders have sounded the alarm over a planned 120% hike in the fees they must pay to sponsor overseas staff to work for them on skilled worker visas.

The government has tabled legislation to raise the certificate of sponsorship fee from £239 to £525, though it has not confirmed the implementation date.

Employers must obtain the certificates to enable people from abroad to apply for a health and care visa, enabling them to work in the sector. The fee also applies to overseas workers already in the UK, on any visa, applying to work in the care sector.

Providers face costs hike from tax and wage increases

The development comes in the wake of the planned rise to employers’ national insurance contributions due to come into force in April 2025.

This is due to cost providers £940m in 2025-26, according to think-tank the Nuffield Trust, with organisations also facing a £1.85bn bill next year from the 6.7% rise in the national living wage (NLW).

While councils fund 70% of care in the independent sector, local government leaders have warned that they have not been sufficiently resourced to cover their share of the bill.

‘Yet another blow to care providers’

Representative body Care England estimated that independent adult social care providers would have faced an additional bill of £10.3m in 2024-25 had the proposed certificate of sponsorship fee been in place. This is based on an estimate that providers will have recruited 36,000 overseas staff during the year – based on Skills for Care figures showing 18,000 were taken on in the first six months – and multiplying this by the £286 increase in fees.

“These proposed fee increases represent yet another blow to social care providers, compounding what is already a devastating situation for the sector,” said Care England’s chief executive, Martin Green.

He also raised concerns about the impact of the measure on international recruitment, which was significantly responsible for the fall in sector vacancy numbers, from 164,000 to 131,000, from March 2022 to March 24.

Since last March, the number of international recruits has plummeted on the back of a ban on overseas staff bringing dependants with them when taking up roles in the social care sector.

The 18,000 international staff independent providers recruited from April to September 2024 compare with 105,000 in the year to March 2024, a fall of roughly two-thirds in the quarterly average.

Government urged to reverse policy

Green added: “Targeting international recruitment with these fee increases is an attack at the very heart of the sector’s ability to function. Care providers are already fighting to sustain services, and these additional costs will push many to breaking point. The government must reconsider its position immediately.”

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services also raised concern about the fee increase, with president Mel Williams saying: “Care workers recruited from overseas have played an essential role in supporting thousands of people and their families, filling many vacant posts across the sector over the last few years.

“Given the financial challenges they face, we know some care companies will be questioning the financial viability of continuing to provide care and support.”

Staff vacancy numbers in adult social care services fell last year, early data suggests.

As of December 2024, 7% of roles in independent sector adult social care providers in England lay vacant, down from 7.6% in April 2024, according to the Skills for Care (SfC’s) figures.

The data only covers those providers that have submitted figures to SfC’s adult social care workforce data set (ASC-WDS) for the relevant time period so is not representative of the sector as a whole.

SfC’s last sector-wide assessment measured the independent sector vacancy rate at 8.1% as of March 2024, down from 9.9% in 2023 and 10.7% in 2022.

Rapid fall in level of overseas recruitment

These falls were largely driven by the recruitment of staff from abroad. However, levels of international recruitment have fallen since March 2024, when the government banned adult social care staff on new or extended health and care visas from bringing partners or children to the UK.

According to SfC’s estimates, independent providers recruited 18,000 international staff from April to September 2024, compared with 105,000 in the year to March 2024, a fall of roughly two-thirds in the quarterly average.

Nevertheless, SfC data showed that the number of filled posts in independent providers rose from 575,000 to 585,000 from April to December 2024, alongside the apparent fall in vacancies.

Possible contributors to the trends include the 9.8% rise in the national living wage (NLW), from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour, in April 2024, which will have driven up pay across hundreds of thousands of care worker roles.

Concerns over potential care and job cuts

The NLW is due to rise again in April, by 6.7%, to £12.21 an hour. However, there is widespread sector concern that the measure, in combination with the planned increase in employer national insurance contributions, will lead to cuts to both levels of care and employment.

Almost two-thirds (64%) of organisations said they would need to make staff redundant, while 57% said they would have to hand care contracts back to councils and NHS commissioners on the back of the measures, according to a survey carried out last November by the Care Provider Alliance.

Think-tank the Nuffield Trust has estimated that the measures will cost providers in England £2.8bn in 2025-26, £2bn of which would need to be met by local authorities. Separately, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has calculated that councils face £1.8bn in increased costs in adult social care in 2025-26 due to the two measures, and wider inflation.

The government has said that it is making available an extra £3.7bn for local authorities with adult social care responsibilities in 2025-26. However, only about £1.2bn of this is dedicated funding for the sector.

Council fee rises for social care providers have lagged behind increases in the national living wage (NLW) for each of the past three years, providers have reported.

The research, carried out before the government’s autumn 2024 Budget added an estimated £2.8bn to the costs of adult social care in 2025-26, revealed that services were facing increasing workforce challenges.

The latest Sector Pulse Check, carried out from August to September 2024 by representative body Care England and learning disability provider Hft, was based on data from 206 organisations responsible for the care of 128,000 older people and people with learning disabilities and/or autism.

Council fees not keeping up with wage rises

It found that 85% of providers felt that local authority fee increases were not sufficient to cover last year’s rise in the (NLW), from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour.

This replicates findings from 2023, when 79% of providers reported that fee rises did not cover the impact of that year’s rise in the NLW, and 2022 – the first year that the survey covered both learning disability and older people’s providers – when 81% of respondents reported the same.

The average care worker wage among the providers surveyed (£12.10 an hour) was 8.1% above the equivalent figure in the 2023 survey (£11.19 an hour), compared with a 9.8% rise in the NLW over the same period.

Recruitment squeeze

Alongside the reported squeeze on fees, 91% of providers listed workforce-related costs as among their top three financial pressures, up from 81% in the 2023 survey, with 86% citing pay as a key barrier to recruitment, the same proportion as in 2023.

Two-thirds of providers said they had seen a decrease or no change in the number of applications they had received from UK jobseekers in the past 12 months, down from 54% in the 2023 survey.

And while 55% reported an increase in applications from international staff over the previous 12 months, policy changes introduced in March 2024 – notably a ban on overseas social care staff on health and care visas bringing dependants to the UK – have squeezed the supply of staff from abroad.

Financial pressures easing

This year’s survey did reveal some improvements in providers’ financial position compared with 2023, including that:

• 29% of providers said they were in deficit in 2024, down from 40% in 2023.
• 26% said their surpluses had decreased, down from 31% in 2023.
• Use of agency staff fell to 7.8% in 2024, from 15.7% in 2023, despite the workforce pressures.
• 29% of providers said they had closed down parts of their organisations or handed back contracts to local authorities as a result of cost pressures, down from 43% in 2023.
• 9% said they were offering care to fewer people as a result of cost pressures in 2024, down from 17% in 2023.

Estimated £2.8bn bill from Budget

However, the survey was carried out before last year’s Budget announcement of a further 6.7% rise in the NLW and a significant increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs), both of which will be implemented this April.

Think-tank the Nuffield Trust has estimated that these measures will cost providers an extra £2.8bn in 2025-26, with local authorities having to find £2bn of this in increased fees. The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, meanwhile, has calculated an increased bill for local authorities of £1.8bn.

However, both the Nuffield Trust and ADASS figures far exceed the approximately £1.2bn in dedicated additional funding for adult social care that the government has allocated to councils for 2025-26.

Calls for sector funding boost and easing of migration rules

On the back of the latest Sector Pulse Check, Care England and Hft urged the government to:

• Fully fund the rise in employer or exempt care providers from the increase.
• Remove the ban on social care staff coming to the UK on health and care visas from bringing dependants.
• Introduce a multi-year funding framework for adult social care, with annual increases linked to inflation and increases in the NLW.
• Increase pay across the sector, over the long-term, in order to achieve parity with similar NHS roles.
• Introduce national standards for commissioning to tackle inconsistencies in local authority practices.

The survey results come with the government having announced the establishment of a commission, headed by Baroness (Louise) Casey, on long-term reform of adult social care, but faced sector criticism for deferring its final report until 2028 at the latest.

Delayed action ‘leaving more people without support they need’

Care England chief executive Martin Green said: “We are ready to work alongside Baroness Casey and the government to turn this commission into a catalyst for genuine change. But let’s be clear: the status quo is no longer an option. Every delay, every failure to act, pushes more care providers out of the sector and leaves more people without the support they need.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) issued a broadly similar message in response to the survey.

“Local authorities are under unprecedented financial pressure, exacerbated by inflation, rising demand, an increase in employer national insurance contributions, and workforce challenges,” said the chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, David Forthergill.

“We urgently need a long-term funding plan for adult social care, along with a workforce strategy that values and supports care workers. Without immediate government action, care services will remain at risk, with devastating consequences for individuals and families who rely on them.”

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The £600m for social care announced in today’s Budget risks being swallowed up by wage and employer tax increases, leaving little or nothing to address spending pressures, sector leaders have warned.

Both council and adult care provider bodies sounded the alarm over the impact of next year’s 6.7% rise in the national living wage (NLW) – which will benefit many thousands of care workers – and increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs).

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the measures today, alongside news that councils would receive at least an extra £600m in grant funding for social care in 2025-26. This was part of a wider grant package worth £1.3bn which, along with other revenue increases, would give local government a real-terms rise in resource of about 3.2% next year.

How £600m for social care measures up

The Treasury did not confirm whether the £600m was for adults’ services, children’s services or both, or how much extra resource councils will have available to spend on social care next year, notably through increases in council tax and the adult social care precept. These details will be set out in the draft local government finance settlement, due later in the year.

The extra £600m is worth about 1.5% of the £38.6bn councils have budgeted to spend on adults’ and children’s social care in 2024-25.

It also falls far short of the £3.4bn in additional pressures that the Local Government Association (LGA) has calculated councils will face in adults’ and children’s social care in 2025-26, compared with 2024-25.

Extra costs to sector from wage and tax rises

However, the Budget also brought significant additional costs for social care services, in the shape of the NLW rise, which will benefit many thousands of care workers, and the increase in employer NICs, both of which come into force in April 2025.

Under the latter – the biggest tax-raising measure announced by Reeves today – the rate employers pay will rise from 13.8% to 15% and the threshold of employee earnings at which firms start paying the tax will decrease from £9,100 to £5,000 a year.

The government has also set aside about £5bn a year to compensate public sector employers, such as councils, for the impact of the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions that comes into force next April.

However, the impact on councils specifically has not been set out explicitly by the Treasury, nor has any funding been announced to cover the measure’s affect on voluntary and private sector employers, including care providers, though the smallest businesses will be protected.

Extra adult social care costs ‘will almost certainly absorb £600m’

The LGA said that the NLW and employer NICs increases “will almost certainly absorb all of the [£600m] grant increase for many councils even if it is spent wholly on adult social care”.

This would leave “little or nothing to address immediate challenges in adult social care, such as long waiting times for an assessment of a person’s care needs or the commencement of care packages”.

Its chair, Louise Gittens, also questioned whether councils, in their role as employers, were being compensated for the rise in NICs.

“The government needs to give explicit clarity on whether councils will be protected from extra cost pressures from the increases to employer national insurance contributions,” she added.

‘Vital government fully funds wage rise for sector’

Though the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) welcomed the additional £600m, it delivered a similar message, with president Melanie Williams saying the extra funding “may end up getting used to cover employers’ national insurance increases and wage increases amongst providers”.

“Our last survey showed that councils overspent on adult social care last year by £586m, therefore it’s vital that government fully funds the increases in national living wage or it risks escalating financial pressures on adult social care further,” she added.

For not-for-profit provider body the National Care Forum, chief executive Vic Rayner said: “Even if all the £600m were to be dedicated to meeting the cumulative additional costs that social care employers will now face, it is unlikely to cover the required uplifts. This is before envisaging how hard this will hit people who pay for their own care, in a system desperate for reform.”

Budget ‘risks sending providers over the edge’

The Homecare Association, which represents domiciliary care providers, was also clear that the £600m was “nowhere near enough” and raised very significant concerns about the impact of the increased costs on providers’ ability to stay in business.

“The chancellor has increased costs for providers without providing enough funds to cover them,” said its chief executive, Jane Townson.

“Many small providers are already close to the brink, running on wafer-thin margins. These decisions risk sending many over the edge.”

She added that the association’s research had found that there was a £1.08bn deficit between commissioner fees in England and the amount home care providers needed to pay the existing NLW of £11.44, cover costs and turn a 5% profit.

Social care ‘struggling to cover basic costs’

Care England, which represents independent adult care providers, similarly warned that providers were already underfunded and that the £600m – which it presumed would also cover children’s services – was a “drop in the ocean”.

“We needed a bold step forward, a signal that adult social care matters to the fabric of our society,” said Care England chief executive Martin Green

“Instead, today’s announcement leaves the sector struggling to cover basic costs, pushing it further toward a point where both capacity and access will inevitably decline.”

The Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, which represents charitable providers, said the Budget “falls far short of the commitment needed to put social care on a surer footing”, while also increasing costs for the sector.

Impact of fair pay agreement for adult social care

Alongside the increase in the NLW and employer NICs, its chief executive, Rhidian Hughes, pointed to the increased costs to the sector from the government’s proposed introduction of a fair pay agreement for adult social care, through its Employment Rights Bill.

‘While the commitments to raise the national living wage and improve workers’ rights are of course welcome, the fact that plans, including a rise in employer national insurance contributions, remain unfunded, disregards the significant pressures already facing providers,” he said.

“Seventy per cent of charities are already under-funded for the services they are commissioned to deliver, with the vast majority of costs being staff costs.”

Strain on carers and organisations that support them

A similar message was delivered by the Carers Trust, in relation to the network of local carer support organisations it oversees.

“The [social care] system is broken, piling pressure on carers while the local carer organisations who support them are struggling to meet demand,” said its chief executive, Kirsty McHugh.

“The hike to employer national insurance contributions will see the operating costs of those carer organisations soar while local government remains squeezed, driving some to the brink.”

The British Association of Social Workers said the £600m for social care was “only scratching the surface of what’s needed”.

No mention of long-term social care reform

In one of its first acts in government, the party scrapped its Conservative predecessor’s plan to reform the adult social care charging system, including by imposing a cap on people’s liabilities for personal care, on the grounds that it was unfunded.

However, despite pledging to create “a national care service” – a term it is yet to define – the Budget included no reference to long-term reform of adult social care, a point that drew criticism from sector bodies.

Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams said that “the seemingly endless wait for the far-reaching, fundamental reform and refinancing of social care that is so badly needed goes on”, adding that this was “heartbreaking for all the older and disabled people who need social care, and their families”.

For think-tank the Nuffield Trust, director of research and policy Becks Fisher said: “It is disappointing that today’s Budget does little to stabilise the beleaguered social care sector in the immediate term, and that the supporting rhetoric made no mention at all of the future reform it so desperately needs.”