The Recruitment and Employment Confederation highlights skills shortages in social care to Government.

The REC conducted a survey of the Nursing and Social Care sector group which showed that 80% of respondents said they had encountered problems related to a shortage of skilled labour.  

The REC’s Report on Jobs for January showed that Medical/Nursing and Care are the only sectors which have shown consistent growth for the past 29 months at a time when other sectors have shown an abrupt fall in demand.

Peter Cullimore, Chair of the REC Nursing and Social care group said: The steady growth of the social care sector is not being met by the current availability of labour from the UK and the EU. Leaving vacancies unfilled is not an option when it comes to the care sector. It puts additional pressure on existing staff who may be expected to work  extra  hours which may affect the quality of service.

“In the short term we need a flexible immigration policy to fill those vacancies. However  in the long term we need to encourage more UK nationals into the profession in order to fill these skill shortages”. 

The survey showed that recruiters thought more unqualified candidates could be trained for a career in social care. The survey revealed that agencies played an important role in developing the skills of candidates with 87% of agencies stating that they provide training to their workforce.