Workforce research atSkills for Care

Christine Eborall

Programme Head : Research

Skills for Care• Part of Skills for Care & Development, the

sector skills council for social care, children and young people’s workforces in the UK.

• Mission: ‘to modernise adult social care in England by ensuring standards and qualifications continually adapt to meet the changing needs of people who use care services.’

• Includes providing ‘robust data, research and analysis about the social care workforce.’

Main research areas

1. National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC)

2. Ad-hoc projects (mainly quantitative)

3. Regional research – mainly to support regional activities

4. New Types of Worker / New Ways of Working - 100 action research projects

National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC)• A collection of standard workforce data items• Developed by Skills for Care in partnership

with DH, former DfES, CSCI, GSCC, SCIE, NHS NWP, LSC, LGA, CWDC and others

• Launched October 2005; online since November 2007

• Collected from adult care-providing and –organising establishments

• Also collected from some children’s services

• Not mandatory: carrot & stick approach

Organisational data items• Establishment name, address etc.• CSCI registration no.• Ownership• Main & other services provided • Types of service users• Service provision capacity• Total employees and by 27 job roles• No. starting in past 12 months x 27• No. agency, bank/pool, student, volunteers x 27• No. leaving in past 12 months x 27• Reasons and destinations of leavers

Individual worker data items• National Insurance No• Home postcode, date of birth, gender, ethnicity• Job role(s) and employment status• Contracted hours, additional hours in last week• Full-time or part-time, employment terms• Sickness in past 12 months• Gross pay (3 options: annual, monthly, hourly)• Year started work in social care• Qualifications held and working towards• Year qualifications achieved

NMDS-SC: progress to date• 21,100 organisational and 585,000 worker records in

system• Mainly private and voluntary sector• 55% of CSCI-registered establishments• Bulk Upload Tool launched April 2008 for large

employers and local authorities• Output reports for individual establishments (including

AQAA) and for general use (e.g. local authority profiles) at nmds-sc-online.org.uk/ research

• Datasets available

NMDS-SC 2007-8 workforce numbers• Estimated adult social care jobs = 1,505,000

» including 6% not directly employed, but excludes self-funders and non-social services council staff.

– Private sector 805,000 (53%)– Voluntary sector 265,000 (18%)– Councils 221,000 (15%)– NHS 62,000 (4%)– Recipients of direct payments 152,000 (10%)

• But number of individual workers is fewer• More part-time, short hours jobs and multiple

employers

NMDS-SC workforce projections• NMDS-SC employee + capacity data enables

future demand to be translated into worker numbers

• SfC projections based on PSSRU demand forecasts

• 2025 jobs/workforce = 2 – 2.5 million, depending on scenario

• PSSRU using NMDS-SC data for more sophisticated projections

NMDS-SC care worker payCare workers: median gross hourly pay (moving quarterly

average)

£5.00

£5.20

£5.40

£5.60

£5.80

£6.00

£6.20

£6.40

£6.60

£6.80

£7.00

Care home with nursing

Care home withoutnursing or care only

Domiciliary care orhome care

All other services

All adult services

All services includingchildren's

NMDS-SC age started in social care

Age started in Social Care sector

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

(%)

All Workers Care Workers

NMDS-SC: development and challenges• Collection from local authorities: progressing

slowly• Completeness & currency of response• Change control process invoked for:

– worker migrant status– collection from individuals employing own staff– improve / amend qualifications information

• Collection from NHS – feasibility study• Wales – feasibility study

Skills for Care ad hoc research

• National Survey of Care Workers (2007)• Employment aspects and workforce

implications of Direct Payments (2008)• Rewards & incentives (in progress)• National Skills Academy supply &

demand study (in progress)• Individuals employing own care &

support staff (planned)

National Survey of Care Workers (2007)• Conducted in 2006-7 by TNS• Face to face interviews with a random sample

of 500 care workers (identified via general population omnibus surveys)

• Most working in “traditional” settings• Migrant and ethnic minority workers under-represented

• Main objective: detailed exploration of employment conditions, work patterns and motivations

• Full report & tabs on Skills for Care website

National Survey of Care Workers (2007): key findings• Very high levels of job satisfaction: 90+%

enjoy their work and feel they are making a difference

• Flexibility and hands-on work valued• Lack of appropriate career structure; most not seeking

promotion

• Management of work a key reason for leaving• Positive attitudes to worker registration

• Care work not valued or understood by general public

Direct Payments workforce (2008)• Conducted in 2007 by IFF Research• 526 face to face interviews with DP recipients

in 16 local authorities• 486 PA self–completion questionnaires + 100

telephone interviews with PA sub-sample• Main objective: find out who’s being

employed and how• Full report on Skills for Care website

Direct Payments workforce (2008) : key findings• Average no. of PAs employed = 2.3• Average no. of PA jobs/PA = 1.6• 1/3 of PAs new to social care• 60% of recipients of direct payments have employed

people already known to them• 1/3 of employers recruiting not previously known PAs not

checking CRB or POVA

• PA role very diverse but tailored to individual employer lack of career development

• External training of PAs very infrequent potential new workforce, needs development

Rewards & incentives

• Research in progress by Manchester Metropolitan University

• Main objective: examine links between terms of employment, recruitment and retention difficulties and outcomes for service users

• 3 stages: desk research; multivariate analysis of NMDS-SC and CSCI inspection outcomes; case studies

• Reporting by end 2008• Input into employer guidance

Planned future work

• Individuals employing own care & support staff

• Dearth of knowledge about self-funders• Future model of care need to understand workforce

implications

• Ongoing review of workforce research from other sources

• What it means for employers in the sector

• Research arising from NTOW programme

www.skillsforcare.org.uk/research