I was honoured to make the award for ‘Home Manager of the Year’ at the Greensleeves Care annual staff awards event recently. The requirements of being a good manager made me reflect on how complex the task has become and the implications for retention and recruitment.

Skills for Care’s most recent (October 2024) annual survey of the adult social care workforce (published October 2024) collects a huge amount of data which highlights emerging trends and developments. Amongst the headline findings from the latest report were promising signs of improvement in such vital areas as staff turnover and vacancy rates. There is evidence that filled posts are at the highest level since Skills for Care began to collate these records on an annual basis – which is welcome news.

Skills for Care reports turnover rates averaging 24.8% for 2023/24 (down from 29.1% in 2022/23) and vacancy rates also reducing to 8.3% in 2023/24 (compared to 9.9% the previous year). The turnover rate for Registered Managers was 19.4% in the current year which is the lowest it has been since 2017/18. Another revealing finding is that turnover is highest amongst younger staff with the under 25s shown to be currently running at 44.6%. The loss of talent and skills out of the sector is a significant cost on so many levels. There were 350,000 leavers during the year – what a waste! Given the fact that experience in the sector averages 9.4 years it is also a represents a considerable loss of investment. Whilst some of the movement appears to be staff transferring within the sector (perhaps for promotion) it is a concern that the churn on the adult social care workforce remains so high.

The mean age of Registered Managers was found to be 48.3 years with 30% over the age of 55 years. Turnover rates for Registered Managers were 19.4% in 2023/24 – so pretty much 1 in 5 leaving during the year. Given everything we know about the manager being crucial to the quality of care delivered, the operational effectiveness of a service and the meeting of regulatory requirements such statistics are deeply disturbing.

The state of care report references other Skills for Care research (‘Secrets of Success: Learning from employers what works well’, May 2017) which explored the likely factors contributing to success in those organisations with a turnover rate of less than 10%. The top of the list was:

• Investing in learning and development (94%)
• Embedding the values of the organisation (92%)
• Celebrating achievements of both the organisation and individuals (86%)

Such outcomes are all too familiar from the programmes of development work undertaken by My Home Life Partners working across the UK and elsewhere. The experience of working with care leaders to build resilience, capacity and to enhance skills often highlights the importance of building confidence and of staff ‘feeling’ valued. Unfortunately, there appear to be too many care settings where these aspects are not yet the norm and the consequence is still being shown in the numbers that leave the care sector every year. Finding ways to value the workforce is vital for the future.