Recruitment and retention of the social care workforce: longstanding and emerging challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic

Several factors associated with turnover identified in this review can be controlled or influenced by care providers. These include managerial support, organisational culture, work organisation, and adequate equipment to ensure health and safety at work. Therefore, one of the critical findings of this review is the need for the sector to be able to offer ‘quality jobs’ in order to improve recruitment and retention; this includes, but not exclusive to, ensuring decent pay and terms of employment, job security, and quality of the working environment. Another important message of the review is that social care needs better systems to support care providers in creating and offering quality jobs. In particular, there is a need to reconsider how services are commissioned and funded by local authorities, acknowledging the employment implications of funding constraints and commissioning practices. The current situation of significant job losses in some industries (particularly hospitality and retail) during COVID-19 might offer a unique opportunity to redistribute the workforce. For the sector to attract and retain available workers due to such redistributions, social care urgently needs both a financial and image boost. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social care workforce is still unfolding. It will need to be analysed in the ever-changing context of government policies and local implementation in the coming months.