FEATURE


A Happier, Healthier Workplace


Throughout June, Skills for Care provided information to help social care employers create happy and healthy workplaces. Dave Griffiths, Programme Head – Analysis at Skills for Care, looks at how the chariy's workforce intelligence can help create a happier and healthier social care sector.


We know that a happy and healthy workforce, one which is motivated, engaged with their work, and feels satisfied in their role, is a more productive workforce that will provide the highest quality of care.


Our Secrets of Success research tells us that respecting and valuing staff, investing in learning and development, embedding the organisation’s values and celebrating achievements all support staff in feeling happier in their roles, and staying in them.


That’s why Skills for Care is focused on providing support to help employers to create a happy and healthy workplace for their teams.


But there is also a wider picture that we can support with; not only in supporting individual organisations, but in helping inform decisions that can make the social care sector a happier and healthier workplace for everyone.


We do this through the insights we provide from the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) and our workforce intelligence.


Using this intelligence, we create regional and national reports, and deliver insights to the Government and other sector decision-makers, which provides a clear picture of our current workforce, the issues which affect them, and forecasts for the future.


These insights help sector stakeholders such as the Government, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and local authorities gain a clearer understanding of the current challenges and opportunities for the sector. This understanding supports them to make decisions that can help to develop a better-supported social care sector for those who work in social care and those who draw on care and support.


Our data evidences the recruitment and retention challenges which the sector faces – and the opportunity we have to attract new people to build a career in care.


At the time of writing, our data shows us that vacancy rates have increased from 6.1% in April 2021 to 10.3% in April 2022.


Additionally, our data reveals that in 2020/21, approximately 410,000 staff leſt their jobs and 152,000 (37%) of them leſt the adult social care sector entirely.


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Through our analysis, Skills for Care has been able to evidence the most important factors affecting a worker’s likelihood to stay with their employer.


https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/resources/documents/Recruitment-support/Retaining-your-staff/Secrets-of-Success/Recruitment-and-retention-secrets-of-success-report.pdf


• People are more likely to leave if they’re on zero-hours contracts. A higher number of contracted hours also increased the likelihood of staying.


• The likelihood of leaving decreased as pay levels increased.


• The likelihood of leaving decreased if people had more training.


• People with a social care qualification were less likely to leave their posts.


This data tells us, and decision-makers, that work must be done to attract new people to the sector and secure our future workforce. From our insights we know that for the adult social care workforce to grow proportionally to the projected number of people aged 65 and over, an extra 490,000 filled roles would be required by 2035.


https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Adult-Social-Care-Workforce-Data/Workforce-intelligence/publications/Data-and-publications.aspx


The recent Government white paper ‘People at the heart of care' sets out the Government’s ambitions to ensure “those working in social care feel recognised, rewarded and are equipped with the right skills and knowledge.”


Their proposals include an increase in the National Living Wage, giving the lowest-paid care workers a pay rise; a plan to ensure care workers are paid for all hours worked; an investment to support local authorities in paying providers a fair rate for care, and an investment in learning and development across the sector.


The insights provided by Skills for Care, which come from the data provided to us by social care providers, have been available to the Government when creating these plans, and were quoted in the White Paper. We hope that by continuing to provide insights about the adult social care workforce, we can keep having a positive impact on the sector, making it a happier and healthier place for all our dedicated workers.


Keep an eye on the Skills for Care website for dates of upcoming virtual tours of how ASC-WDS works and how it can benefit you.


Find out more about ASC-WDS and how you can support the sector by sharing your insights by visiting our website.


www.skillsforcare.org.uk/ascwds www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


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