Adult social care’s economic contribution has increased to £40.5 billion, according to research carried out by Skills for Care.

The new figure was revealed in Skills for Care’s annual ‘The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England, 2019’ report, using data from the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set supplied by thousands of employers.

The huge contribution the sector makes to the country’s wellbeing is underlined in the report, with an estimated 18,500 organisations involved in providing or organising adult social care in England. Those services were delivered in an estimated 39,000 establishments embedded in their communities.

The report also showed that around 237,000 adults, older people and carers received direct payments from councils’ social services departments in 2017/2018, and it is estimated that approximately 31% (75,000) of these recipients were employing their own staff.

Skills for Care Interim CEO Andy Tilden said: “This report using solid data supplied by employers shows that adult social care must now be factored into workforce and economic planning at a national, regional and local level.

“We know the outstanding work our workforce does in our communities day in day out, but their £40.5 billion contribution means our growing sector is now a key driving force in the national economy. If we continue to deliver social care in the same way, it is projected we may need to fill another 580,000 job roles by 2035 and that means our sector is only going to get bigger as demand for high-quality care services continues to increase.”

The report also found that the number of adult social care jobs was estimated to have increased by around 1.2% (19,000 jobs) between 2017 and 2018. Since 2009, the number of adult social care jobs has increased by 22% (290,000 jobs).

Skills for Care estimates that the staff turnover rate of directly employed staff working in the adult social care sector was 30.8% in 2018/19. This equates to approximately 440,000 people leaving their jobs over the course of the year.

The research also concluded that the majority (91%) of the adult social care workforce were employed on permanent contracts; approximately half of the workforce (48%) worked on a full-time basis; 40% were part-time and the remaining 12% had no fixed hours.
Skills for Care estimates that 7.8% of roles in adult social care were vacant, equivalent to 122,000 vacancies at any one time.

To download ‘The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England, 2019’ report and accompanying infographic, visit: www.skillsforcare.org.uk/StateOfEarlyRelease