The number of registered nurses being recruited into adult social care is now exceeding pre-pandemic levels, but instability in the wider workforce remains, a new report has found.
The government arms’-length body Skills for Care has today published its latest report into the “size and structure” of the adult social care sector and workforce in England.
“A truly community-centred model demands a stronger, more sustainable domestic pipeline”
Donna O’Boyle
The report details recruitment, retention and vacancies across the sector, based on the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set, which is contributed to by 21,100 care providers, representing 728,000 staff.
It showed that, in the 2024-25 financial year, around 35,000 registered nurses were recruited into care settings, with almost all entering work in nursing homes.
This is an increase on 2023-24, when 33,000 were recruited, which was itself an increase on the five-year low of 31,000 in 2022-23.
These figures now put nurse recruitment in social care above the 2019-20 levels, when the number stood at 33,000.
Overall, Skills for Care’s figures suggested an improvement in both recruitment and retention in adult social care.
The number of filled posts for all roles increased by 3.4%, to 1.6m, between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Vacancies, meanwhile, fell by 12.4% to 111,000, with a return to pre-pandemic vacancy rate of 7% sector-wide after a 2021-22 high of 152,000 unfilled posts.
Care homes which employ registered nurses also reduced vacancy rates compared to the previous year. However, rates were still higher (4.7%) compared to settings without nurses.
The data did not specify why this was, nor did it state how many nurse vacancies there were in these settings.
Skills for Care chief executive Oonagh Smyth described the figures as “encouraging”, but noted that vacancy rates in adult social care were still roughly three times higher than the economy average.
“But we can’t afford to be complacent as some of this will be down to the fall in vacancies in the wider economy, which we know always benefits our sector,” said Ms Smyth.
“We need to protect ourselves from the wild swings in vacancy rates driven by the wider economic picture,” she said.
Skills for Care’s report was the first since the significant tightening of immigration rules across the past year, in particular regarding the Health and Care Visa.
International recruitment fell by more than 50%, from 105,000 to 50,000, though the number of posts filled by people with British nationality fell by 30,000.
This means that, despite direct international recruitment falling, an increasing number of workers in adult social care are still living on visas.
Ms Smyth called for the UK government, care providers, regulators and frontline staff to each play their “role in building the workforce we need”, and said that measures to improve domestic recruitment should be put into place.
Other sector leaders shared Ms Smyth’s cautious optimism.
Donna O’Boyle, acting executive director of professional practice at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, said: “This is a timely report, with the government’s 10 Year Health Plan in England seeking to shift care into community settings.
“But the numbers in today’s report make clear that a truly community-centred model demands a stronger, more sustainable domestic pipeline.”
Ms O’Boyle noted the fall in international recruitment, and parallel fall in the proportion of the workforce of British nationality, adding that it could impact on “continuity of care”.
She said: “[The] journey must begin with education and continue through career-long development.
“We need more students choosing social care nursing, supported by high-quality placements in the sector that build vital skills and confidence.
“Investing in continuing professional development and fostering positive workplace cultures is equally important to strengthen the retention of experienced professionals – whose expertise is a lifeline for people across the UK.”
Similarly, Health Foundation policy fellow Lucinda Allen said the report showed that the adult social care sector’s recruitment and retention problems have “eased”.
However, Ms Allen said that shrinking numbers of British workers entering social care “raises serious concerns” in the aftermath of a collapse in international recruitment.
“Caring for older people and disabled people is vital and rewarding work but has long been underpaid and undervalued,” she added.
“Making jobs in social care more attractive and tackling high levels of poverty among workers requires significant improvements to pay, career progression and employment conditions.
“It’s vital that the government delivers on its plans for a ‘Fair Pay Agreement’ for social care.”
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “This report reflects progress, but it is progress resting on an increasingly precarious base. It would be wrong to view this as a policy success story.
“In truth, this rebound has been driven by international recruitment, not by structural reforms to make care a more attractive domestic career. That’s a gamble the government is now walking away from.”
