Social care workers across England are happy but feel unappreciated by the general public.
Whilst 90 per cent said they were happy in their work, less than half believe their work is appreciated.
“This survey is the largest ever study of adult social care workers in England and it has revealed that we have some difficult challenges ahead of us over the next decade,” said Donald Hoodless, chair of social care workforce development agency, Skills for Care, the survey authors.
Hoodless added: “It is good news that the workforce is happy in their work but it does raise serious questions about whether they have the skills to cope with the significant changes in our sector, particularly with the greater emphasis on personalised care for a more articulate group of people who use services some of whom are now directly employing their own staff.”
The study found that 69 per cent of care workers are now trained to at least NVQ Level two and another 11 per cent at level one, with three quarters reporting they’d had training and development reviews but a third said they had been supervised only occasionally or not at all.
“But as we increase numbers of trained staff we need to have a full debate about how we make sure we boost the financial incentives for getting a qualification, as our research shows there is only a maximum 6 per cent difference in pay rates between qualified and non-qualified staff, which is far too low,” said Hoodless.
