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There’s a new @skillsforcare #socialcare workforce report out today. Most of the data is pre- #Covid19 but some helps explains what happened during it. Here’s a quick thread on some of the more interesting stuff. Full report here https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-intelligence/publications/national-information/The-size-and-structure-of-the-adult-social-care-sector-and-workforce-in-England.aspx
Why did central government struggle to understand and support #socialcare during #COVID19? Partly because it’s so diverse and complex: over half the organisations have fewer than 10 employees; two thirds have fewer than 20. (No excuse though: it’s been like that for ages.)
It’s also very big. There are 1.65m jobs (1.16m FTEs) filled by 1.5m people (that puts it on a par with the NHS). And it’s growing (albeit not as quickly as you might expect. More on that here https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/social-care-360/workforce-and-carers#growth-in-the-number-of-jobs-has-slowed )
It’s got a flat structure, with 3 in 4 of staff providing direct care. Even if guidance on e.g. PPE had been spot-on (it wasn’t), that creates challenges for consistently getting it to such a big, distributed workforce, many of whom work p/t. You need more than an app for that.
More complexity: part of that direct care is provided by 105,000 personal assistants, employed directly by 70,000 disabled people. #COVID19 guidance on PAs was late but again there’s little excuse: the report shows they’ve been at that level for years
PAs make up 8% of all jobs (more than the number employed directly by councils). The VCS figure is interesting too - it employs 1 in 5 of all jobs. And those private sector employers are mostly small companies so there’s more provider diversity in #socialcare than many think
A couple of things directly about #COVID19. There were fewer #socialcare job vacancies during the pandemic than before it, 6.6% v 8.3% during. Why? Probably fewer roles to fill (demand for services fell) and more people to fill them as staff from other sectors came in.
And - unsurprisingly - #COVID19 pushed up sickness levels, from 2.4% before to 8% during (inc. shielding and self-isolating staff). It illustrates the huge pressure staff were under during the worst of the epidemic. You might think they deserve more than just applause for that.
