August 4, 2020
By Professor Shereen Hussein, Professor of Care and Health Policy Evaluation, PSSRU, University of Kent
“The size and structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England” offers much-needed insight at a time of turbulence
COVID19 pandemic, Brexit and a predicted economic downturn add enormous pressures on an already stretched social care sector. The social care sector has long-standing challenges in recruiting and retaining enough workers with the right training and skills to meet the escalating demands on the sector. With considerable uncertainties associated with forces of change such as Brexit and the unpredicted COVID19 pandemic calls for accurate data and analysis to inform a dynamic policy decision-making process. The latest Skills for Care report uses its vast database of information on the workforce collected by the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) from around 20,000 care providers in England.