Adult social care providers struggling to recruit nurses, finds DHSC

Adult social care providers across England have reported serious difficulties in recruiting registered nurses and nursing associates, according to new data from a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) survey.

Of the more than 3,000 providers that responded, some 46% cited difficulties recruiting staff with the necessary skills to meet the needs of service users in the last 12 months.

A further 27% said skills gaps in the workforce had impacted business performance and growth, while almost half (48%) cited systemic or financial obstacles to upskilling their workforce.

When asked about the recruitment of registered nurses and nursing associates, 240 care providers responded – with almost 70% reporting challenges.

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When broken down, 24% said they had found it ‘somewhat’ difficult and 45% said it had been ‘very’ difficult to recruit staff with the right skills for registered nurse and nursing associate roles.

Dr Agnes Fanning, lead of the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing (QICN) Adult Social Care Network, said the results were ‘interesting’ from an employer and policy maker perspective.

‘We are hearing that the cost of training to work in the social care sector seems to be a barrier and this is preventing professional development for some.

‘These factors may contribute to the difficulties recruiting,’ she added.

The voluntary survey was conducted via Capacity Tracker between February 10 and March 14 of this year.

The majority of responses came from domiciliary care providers (60%), followed by residential care providers (38%) and a small proportion (2%) from services registered for both.

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Earlier this week, the government announced a £500m cash injection to improve pay, terms and conditions for adult social care workers across England – although sector leaders warned the investment will not be enough to tackle serious workforce challenges.

In July, Skills for Care launched a DHSC funded strategy which aims to ‘embed’ adult social care placements in nursing degrees and encourage more nursing students to work in the sector.

The results also follow a drop reported last year in the number of health and care worker visas granted following the government’s decision last year to ban direct care workers arriving from overseas from bringing dependents on their visa.

In May, the government launched an independent commission of the adult social care sector which is expected to be completed by 2028.

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This year, the government announced plans to ‘end’ the recruitment of care workers from overseas in a move criticised as ‘pandering and scapegoating’ by nursing and social care leaders.

In January, the government launched an independent commission to ‘rebuild’ adult social care, but long-term social care reform is not expected before 2028.