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SCIE responds to the Skills for Care Workforce Strategy

18 July 2024


Kathryn Smith, Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), responds to the Skills for Care Workforce Strategy and the new workforce data published today.

The Workforce Strategy sets out a crucial roadmap for how to tackle both the workforce shortage and the skills shortage in social care. Better pay is only one step forward. Taken together, the strategy’s recommendations have the potential to shift the dial in how we value care work.

Not only do we need to grow the workforce to meet the rising demand for social care, but it is imperative that care workers are properly skilled and fully equipped to support people with increasingly complex needs.

Earlier this week, we learned from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services that demand for social care continues to exceed local capacity and resources. The key driver is swifter hospital discharges of people whose complex needs require costlier care packages combining health and social care services. The Workforce Strategy acknowledges this reality and rightly sets out an ambition for care careers, skills development and professional qualifications.

We look forward to working with Skills for Care and sector partners to help deliver the strategy, but political will is also required to tackle the systemic and funding changes required for a truly fair and equitable care system.

With a government heralding workforce reform, now is the time to unlock the potential of the social care sector and create a new reality for the 1.59 million people who work in care.

Kathryn Smith
Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

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