Workforce research at Skills 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 selffunders and non-social services council staff. – – – – – Private sector Voluntary sector Councils NHS Recipients of direct payments 805,000 (53%) 265,000 (18%) 221,000 (15%) 62,000 (4%) 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 pay Care workers: median gross hourly pay (moving quarterly average) Care home with nursing £7.00 £6.80 £6.60 Care home without nursing or care only £6.40 £6.20 £6.00 £5.80 Domiciliary care or home care All other services £5.60 £5.40 £5.20 All adult services Ju ly 0 Au 7 g Se 07 pt 0 O 7 ct 0 N 7 ov D 07 ec 0 Ja 7 n 0 Fe 8 b 0 M 8 ar Ap 08 ril 0 M 8 ay Ju 08 ne 0 Ju 8 ly 0 Au 8 g 08 £5.00 All services including children's NMDS-SC age started in social care Age started in Social Care sector 18 16 14 12 (%) 10 8 6 4 2 U nd er 18 18 -1 9 20 -2 4 25 -2 9 30 -3 4 35 -3 9 40 -4 4 45 -4 9 50 -5 4 55 -5 9 60 -6 4 65 -6 O 9 ve r7 0 0 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