FIGURES showing a huge shortage in the number of workers needed to provide social care are a wake-up call for action, the Independent Care Group said today.
Skills for Care revealed today that an extra 540,000 social care staff will be needed by 2040 to cope with rising demand.
It said the sector was currently short of 131,000 staff with the 8.3% vacancy rate in social care three times the average for other sectors.
The IICG said the stark shortage of social care workers was a wake-up call to the new government.
ICG Chair Mike Padgham said: “The figures, though shocking, are not a surprise and we have been warning for some years that social care was sleepwalking towards a care worker shortage that would severely damage our ability to provide care for a population that needs more and more.
“The difference is that we do have a new government that has a mandate and a clear majority, to do something about it.
“It is disappointing that there was no specific mention of social care reform in the King’s Speech, but we have to remain positive that reform will start soon.”
He backed Skills for Care’s workforce strategy, which calls on the Government to introduce strategic workforce planning for the sector and improve pay, terms and conditions for care workers.
“Care worker pay has to improve or we will never fill the 131,000 vacancies, let alone meet the extra 430,000 posts we will need by 2034 or 540,000 by 2040,” Mr Padgham added.
“As an urgent measure, ahead of any other reform they seek for social care, we need the Government to switch funding into social care from the NHS, so that we can recruit the people we need. That in turn will help the NHS because at the moment a lack of available social care support is exacerbating the expensive logjam in costly NHS care.”
The ICG is pressing the Government to get more resources to councils to commission more care and to improve pay for those working in the sector.