England's adult social care sector faces long-term recruitment and retention challenges as it is projected to need around 470,000 extra posts by 2040, a report has revealed.
Skills for Care's report said an increase of 27% would be required to keep up with the growth in the population over the age of 65.
Chair of the Local Government Association's health and wellbeing committee, Wendy Taylor, said: ‘Urgent action is still needed to tackle long-standing serious recruitment and retention challenges, particularly around fair pay, access to training and employment rights for all care workers.'
Senior fellow at The King's Fund charity, Simon Bottery, added: ‘With recent changes to visa rules, the Government has effectively turned off the tap for international recruits without implementing sufficient measures to fill the gap with domestic workers.
‘We will need to rethink the wider funding of social care, develop a wider workforce strategy and consider how the workforce can be better deployed to support those who rely on it.'
Deputy director of policy at the Nuffield Trust think-tank, Natasha Curry, warned: ‘As even tighter immigration restrictions kick in, the sector's overreliance on overseas staff is looking increasingly risky.'
