Adult social care welcomes new recruitment campaign
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) launched a national adult social care workforce recruitment campaign, ‘Every Day is Different,’ on Monday, with the aim to showcase the importance and rewards of careers in social care.
The campaign will target people aged 20 to 39, identified as the age range most likely to consider a role in adult social care, in an effort to fill the sector’s current 110,000 vacancies.
Through the promotion of career progression and professional development within the sector, it is hoped the campaign will successfully attract young people to a range of job roles the sector requires, including carers, support workers, activities coordinators and occupational therapists, among others.
The campaign is welcome news, but workforce vacancies are expected to increase sixfold. The Government predicts the social care workforce will require an estimated 650,000 additional workers by 2035 to accommodate the ageing population.
As the Brexit deadline fast approaches with no greater clarity on the terms of a deal than at the time of the EU referendum nearly three years ago, Brexit poses a significant threat to the sector. The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) revealed in March 2018 that there were 2,909 fewer EEA health staff on the register compared with March 2017, while our recent report on adult social care, ‘Adult Social Care 2018: Funding, Staffing and the Winter Crisis,’ reports an estimated shortage of 20,000 full-time equivalent nurses alone.
Our Adult Social Care reports have traced the crucial role EU nurses play in filling vacancies caused by a shortage of UK nurses, reporting an 87% decrease in EU nurse registrations in 2017/18 compared to 2016/2017.
The ‘Every Day is Different’ campaign is a welcome development given the existing workforce shortages and reinforces the incredibly important and rewarding role which a career in the care sector can provide. This campaign will hopefully encourage similar campaigns to address growing workforce issues and other challenges facing the healthcare industry.
