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Social care faces fierce competition from other sectors, in bid to solve recruitment crisis

Social care is facing intense competition from rival sectors, in a bid to solve a recruitment crisis which has plagued the labour market in the last two years.

In a candidate-driven market, social care providers and organisations are attempting to fill thousands of jobs across all levels, as competing markets, such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing and logistics also vie to fill vast quantities of roles.

Research has shown that there are more than 126,000 jobs available in the social care sector, dwarfed by the 284,979 positions in healthcare, over 171,000 in retail, nearly 100,000 in manufacturing, and 38,000 in logistics. In all but social care, the number of jobs being advertised has risen across all sectors since July – up by 95% in retail alone.

The statistics – compiled by independent social care investor, Tristone Healthcare – show that the largest proportion of jobs were in adult social care, with the majority at entry level (17%). According to the research of recruitment data, there are more jobs in London (20,475), with Manchester second and Birmingham third.

Yannis Loucopoulos, CEO at Tristone Healthcare, commented: “Every sector is facing a squeeze on talent, making the job of recruiting for roles within the social care sector greater than ever. The industry has been attempting to bridge the skills gap for quite some time, but this has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit.

“The issue of recruitment is being felt by every provider and organisation within social care but one company alone cannot solve this problem and the need for greater collaboration from grass roots right through to central Government is essential if we are going to encourage more people into the industry.”

The research shows that the problem of recruitment is being felt in every corner of the country, with the largest proportion of vacancies in England (88%); there are nearly 8,000 positions in Scotland, and more than 5,000 jobs available in Wales.

Alison Moore, Managing Director of Juventas Services, said: “For me, the single biggest issue in the sector is recruitment. More and more, people are sadly stepping away from social care at a time when we need them the most. Unfortunately, the job of finding suitable replacements is becoming increasingly difficult.

“Once we recruit good staff, we keep hold of them, because of the values we have as a business and how we treat our team. But, at the moment, it feels like we’re forever recruiting, and finding the right people who have the passion and drive to work with children with complex behavioural and social needs on a 24/7 basis is a real struggle.”

Earlier this year, Ofsted produced a report about the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s social care. The report found that that the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing staffing challenges in the sector, which it says has serious consequences on the number of suitable children’s home places available and the different needs staff are able to support.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ian Jones .