One in 10 social care jobs in Nottinghamshire were unfilled last year

Charity Skills for Care, which estimates there are 165,000 vacant posts across England, said the social care sector is facing complex challenges with a surge in demand impacting recruitment and retention.

The charity’s annual report found England’s social care vacancy rate hit a record high of nearly 11 per cent in the year to September.

Figures provided by the charity show there were about 23,000 jobs in Nottinghamshire’s adult social care sector in 2021-22, with roughly 21,000 posts filled, giving a vacancy rate just below the national average of 10 per cent. There was a significant level of vacancy for occupational therapist, at 25 per cent, and social worker, 24 per cent, roles.

Caroline Abrahams, Care and Support Alliance co-chairman, said: “Recruitment and retention in social care have been difficult for years, but appear to be getting markedly worse.

“The main problem is pay – cash-starved care simply can’t compete with the big supermarkets and online retailers on wages, so committed staff are lured elsewhere.”

Skills for Care’s report found about 400,000 people left jobs in 2021-22, with an average turnover rate of 29 per cent.

Nottinghamshire had a turnover rate of 31 per cent across adult social care, with rates high among registered nurses, at 40 per cent, and care workers, 37 per cent.

The charity said a key solution was better pay for care workers, adding the average care worker was paid less than £1 per hour less than new healthcare assistants in the NHS.

Oonagh Smyth, Skills for Care chief executive officer, said: “We must talk more about how rewarding social care is to work in so we attract more people, and we must make it easier for the people who love working in social care to stay by improving terms and conditions and investing in their career development.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We’re investing in adult social care and have made £500 million available to support discharge from hospital and bolster the workforce, on top of record funding to support our 10-year plan set out in the People at the Heart of Care white paper.”