Skills for Care recently released its latest report analysing the 1.62 million people working within adult social care in England (1). The data covers topics such as employment information, recruitment and retention, pay, and future workforce forecasts.

The data has been gathered via the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDCS-SC). Launched in 2007, it has collected data for 12 years, allowing the report to provide an accurate overview of the past and present changes to adult social care whilst forecasting future developments for the industry.

Numbers of the past

It’s well-known the population of the UK is getting older. 18.2% of the 66 million people currently living within the United Kingdom are now aged over 65, compared with 15.9% in 2007 when the NMDCS-SC began to gather data. (2)

With such an increase in the number of ageing adults, the need for care has also increased. At present, there are 1.62 million people currently working within the adult social care sector (outside of the NHS) – an increase of 22% since 2009. According to the report, there has also been an increase of around 3% in establishments opening for adult social care, with an expected further rise of 2% by 2025.

Due to the increase in social care providers, the NMDCS-SC has also reported a significant increase in the number of workers within the care sector. Since 2009 there have been 290,000 roles created, making up approximately £40.5 billion per annum to the economy within England.

Meeting the needs of the workforce

The report also discussed the employment status and hours of the workforce, with 91% employed on a permanent contract and a close split of full-time to part-time hours, at 48% and 40%. With such a large number of split hours, using an effective system such as IQ:careplanner can help to roster and organise care workers simply and effectively, removing the risk of duplicate schedules or missed appointments.

As the adult social care workforce increases, so do the age distribution and skills of workers. According to the NMDCS-SC, these statistics are similar to the economically active population, with 25% of the workers aged 55 and over. It is anticipated this number could potentially increase within the next ten years as more older people stay in work.

The technical skill and knowledge of users is something we take into consideration when designing our products. We have received high praise for our user-friendly interfaces; Emma Morris from Croeso Care Ltd says “IQ:timecard is so simple, even the managers in their late 60s find it easy to use.”

The next decade

The Office for National Statistics is expecting the UK population to have reached almost 73 million by 2041, with the life expectancy projected to grow by 20.7% by 2027.

The Skills for Care report has used these figures to project their estimations surrounding the adult social workforce. They anticipate that a massive 800,000 additional jobs in social care are required, totalling 2.42 million workers within the sector by 2035. Care management systems, like Unique IQ’s will have an increasing role to play – as care agencies expand to meet the growing demand and technology becomes increasingly integrated with the provision of care.

If you would like further details about our products, or wish to share your thoughts on the report, please feel free to contact us, we welcome a chat.

(1) Skills for Care – The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England (2019)

(2) Office for National Statistics – overview of the UK population (2018)

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