Cohesion Logo
  • Solutions
    Green speaker icon
    Fully Outsourced Recruitment

    Delivering end to end in-house recruitment services from attraction to on-boarding

    Green speaker icon
    Campaign and Project Recruitment

    Bespoke recruitment projects delivering high-quality talent to your door.

    Green speaker icon
    Temporary Managed Services

    Add value, visibility and compliance to your temporary workforce.

    Green speaker icon
    Targeted Attraction Strategies

    Online and offline branding and attraction to your target applicant audience

    Green speaker icon
    Assessment and Selection

    A bank of tried and tested screening and assessment techniques

    Green speaker icon
    Engagement and On-boarding

    Ensuring that applicants have a fantastic engagement with your organisation

    Green speaker icon
    Exit and Retention Interviews

    Identify why people leave, and how to retain your top employees

    Green speaker icon
    Data and Analytics

    Taking advantage of big data in recruitment

    Green speaker icon
    Recruitment Toolkit

    Learn from our recruitment toolkit for social care - attraction, assessment and on-boarding.

  • Case Studies
  • White Papers
  • Events
    • Event recordings
  • Blogs
  • Our Story
    • Join our team
  • Testimonials
    • Fairlie Healthcare
    • Friends of the Elderly
    • The Orders of St John Care Trust
    • Keychange
    • The North Bristol NHS Trust
  • Contact
Phone Icon
Search Icon
Contact Us

3rd March 2022

Retention in social care – “grim and relentless”?

Retention in social care – “grim and relentless”?

A recent survey published by the NCF highlighted further increases of pressure for frontline social care with some concerning statistics from their membership:

66% of the homecare providers responding are now having to refuse new requests for home care and 43% of providers of care homes are closing to new admissions, while 21% of providers of home care are handing back existing care packages.

​There are a number of factors causing this continued pressure on the social care sector, currently reporting 18% vacancies and a 14% absent workforce. Whilst we can assume that absence due to the Omicron variant will be temporary, the increasing vacancies is a real concern.

So, what factors are impacting on retention? Well, there are multiple factors, some of which being:

Mandatory Vaccinations:

The U-turn on this policy may be too little too late. The sector saw around 40,000 workers leave due to mandatory vaccinations and there are no guarantees they will return.

Internal Environment: 

The internal environment has a part to play in rising staff turnover too. Care staff have been firefighting for two years now and that is starting to take its toll. Of course staff are tired having been under so much pressure for such a sustained period. This can lead to overworked managers not having capacity to support their existing staff or properly onboard new starters – leading to staff leaving.

Lack of available flexibility is also forcing staff to look for roles that provide better work life balance. Flexibility is particularly important in attracting and retaining Gen Z workers (watch our early talent for social care event here). Gen Z make up less than 11% of the care workforce today – a real untapped potential workforce for the sector.

Brexit:

Although there is no evidence to directly link staff leaving roles with Brexit – there are certainly less arrivals in the UK to take up care roles and other sector roles such as hospitality. Other sectors struggling for candidates can often pay more, which can entice existing care workers to leave.

This all sounds very bleak and it is certainly concerning, however there are steps care providers can take to boost staff retention levels.

Come along to our event on the 17th March where we will share some best practice hints and tips.

 

Register for the Retention Event

Latest News

26th October 2022

The Social Care Retention Crisis event follow up

21st October 2022

Step into Social Care event follow up

21st October 2022

Why the Further Education sector is so important to social care

30th June 2022

How Anchor are bringing new talent into social care via Apprenticeships

View All
Footer Logo
Cohesion
  • Our Solutions
  • Our Story
Resources
  • Whitepapers
  • Case Studies
  • Events
  • Blog
Find Us
  • 2nd Floor
  • Stratford Court
  • Cranmore Boulevard
  • Solihull
  • B90 4QT
Contact
  • 0121 713 8320
  • info@cohesionrecruitment.com
  • Privacy Policy

© Copyright 2023 - Cohesion Recruitment