Dimensions is proud to be helping develop the Care Workforce Pathway

We welcome the ambition of the Skills for Care strategy, which was developed in consultation with organisations throughout the sector including Dimensions. It is the first dedicated social care workforce strategy for 15 years and it is well timed as a new government commits to improving pay for social care workers.

It is based on three areas: attract and retain, train and transform and includes more than seventy recommendations. It was commissioned before the general election, and it is vital that the government supports an implementation plan and funds this so that social care becomes an attractive career choice.

A joint report from the Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust bolsters this and sets out five policy recommendations to improve pay that could form part of this workforce strategy.

Paul depends on support for his day at the stables.

It is difficult to overstate the urgency of this. The workforce size and structure report shows a 70,000 fall in posts filled by people with a British nationality in the last two years. This gap has been filled by international recruits – an increase of 25,000 on the previous year – but this number is falling as the rate of visa applications declines following the ban on overseas social care workers bringing family dependents.

The social care workforce has grown and yet as many as 1.5 million working-age disabled people in England may not be getting the care they’re eligible for. This report sets out the challenge to recruit an average of 36,000 new posts every year from 2025.

Rachael Dodgson, Dimensions’ CEO says: “pay for frontline colleagues is a priority and we have been engaging in collective bargaining with UNISON for almost twenty years. We know that this improves colleague recruitment and retention. Voluntary turnover peaked at 29% in April 2022 but fell steadily to 21% in October 2023 following three pay increases.”

National Living Wage increases have squeezed pay differentials which does not encourage experienced workers to stay. We welcome a funded, nationally higher rate of pay for social care (such as the Real Living Wage) with Government setting a mandatory minimum pay floor. This should be included in the new Employment Rights Bill or it can be applied to publicly funded care using commissioning. It’s important that providers are still able to set levels of pay above this to attract staff according to local market conditions.

Rachael continues: “The sector can’t afford to miss the opportunity to attract more young people and take advantage of the spike in the number of 18-year-olds in the next few years. We need a workforce plan for the sector to achieve this.”

Developing pathways which show clear routes for training and progression is going to be a crucial part of this solution and Dimensions is pleased to be supporting the development and testing of the Care Workforce Pathway. We welcome the focus on high quality skills development that is aligned with emerging needs, and which continues the good work that has already been done on professionalising the social care workforce.

It is also pleasing to see this workforce strategy supporting the further sharing and leveraging of existing good practice and the streamlining of training requirements.

Read more about the Social Care Workforce Strategy.