A call to a career in care
9th February 2021
The government has today launched a national Call to Care initiative, aimed at increasing staff capacity in adult social care to help alleviate the shortages being felt across the sector. The Call to Care encourages individuals to take up short-term paid work in the adult social care sector.
Workers currently on furlough will be eligible for the scheme. Those who have registered as NHS Returners and Volunteers can also respond to the Call to Care.
Kathy Roberts, Chair of the Care Provider Alliance (CPA) says:
“This initiative is a welcome move from central government to increase staff capacity in adult social care. Data from Skills for Care reveals a shortage of the care workforce by 112,000 vacancies and this is before the challenges of the pandemic that has seen care providers working tirelessly to manage capacity issues and alleviate the shortages.
“We very much hope that the Call to Care initiative will encourage many people who may not have considered a job in working within a care environment to consider working in adult social care. Working in care is about working with people and making a difference in people’s lives and this initiative presents a good opportunity for people to try it out in the short-term to find our first hand if it’s the right thing for them. Having worked in care and support for many years, I think many people will be pleasantly surprised by just how rewarding it is to work in care.
“But we need more than a short-term solution, we need a long-term strategic plan that goes to the heart of addressing the workforce capacity issues. That is why the CPA is calling on the government to develop a People Plan that will provide a clear pathway for resolving the workforce issues in adult social care. Some of the challenges we have in the sector is that we have a workforce that is highly skilled but is not being fully recognised for the contribution they make. We need to address this so that we have a structured plan that has government ownership, clear policy and sustainable funding to solve for the future care workforce. Workforce capacity issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic and it will take concentrated effort to alleviate them now and in the future.”
Note to Editors:§
- The Care Provider Alliance (CPA) brings together the 10 main national associations, which represent independent and voluntary adult social care providers in England. We work to represent the sector and ensure a coordinated response to the major issues that affect it.
- The CPA bring together the ten national associations, which represent private, voluntary and community sector providers. We speak for the whole of the adult social care sector including care homes, home care services, Shared Lives schemes and retirement communities.
- CPA members cover almost 10,000 organisations, employ over 600,000 staff and support an estimated 1 million people.
- For more information on the Care Provider Alliance visit our website
- Media contact: Care Provider Alliance, info@careprovideralliance.org.uk