It is a myth that adult social care workers are ‘low skilled’. On the contrary, the compassion, conscientiousness and communication skills care workers are required to display every day – not to mention coping with physical exertion and ability to juggle complex and competing demands on their time – are things that plenty of people in other professions could learn from. Calling them ‘soft’ skills is also misleading, given the hard work it takes to attain them.
What is true is that the people with these skills get nowhere near the respect and recognition they deserve. Whereas those in other caring professions such as nursing, medicine and allied health have numerous ways to accumulate letters after their name and certificates to frame, the adult social care sector is sorely lacking in specific qualifications that prove workers’ knowledge and experience. Indeed, 54% of direct care workers do not have a Level 2 qualification or above.
This means that, while the skilled care delivered by over 1.5 million care workers in the UK every day may be highly valued by the millions of people they support – for whom it is an important human interaction and often a literal lifeline – it is massively undervalued in a jobs market in which salary and status is so closely linked to qualifications. It is no secret that adult social care staff are overworked and underpaid, with many working for barely more than minimum wage and around 30% working more than 40 hours a week.
A need for systemic change
This is a key reason for the retention and recruitment challenges in a sector with over 130,000 unfilled vacancies and in which approximately 30% of workers leave their jobs each year. This would be extremely concerning even if demand for services was not increasing, yet requests for support from new clients reached over two million in 2023-24. Such a parlous situation profoundly affects adult social care staff and those they support, with workers unable to deliver the level of care they want and too many people whose needs are not being met. But it also impacts the wider health and social care system.
Lack of adult social care workers leads to a lack of social care packages, resulting in so-called ‘bed blocking’ where patients cannot be discharged from acute settings as there is nowhere suitable to send them. This constrains beds and capacity, making it difficult to reduce overall waiting lists in an NHS still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there have been recent improvements, analysis of waiting list data by the British Medical Association revealed that in December 2024, approximately 6.24 million patients were waiting for treatment in England, compared to 4.57 million before the pandemic.
Fully addressing these issues requires systemic changes, which will be the focus of the independent commission being chaired by Baroness Casey. But the workforce crisis needs tackling now. While pay and conditions require urgent attention if recruitment and retention are to improve, we can make a career in adult social care more attractive by opening more routes for progression and skills development for both new entrants and experienced staff. That is what has motivated RoSPA to develop a series of accredited adult social care qualifications. These are designed to provide a baseline standard to care, reduce the need for repeat training and recognise care workers as the skilled professionals they are.
The value of recognition
RoSPA has been dedicated to preventing accidents and saving lives for over 100 years, delivering safety initiatives across the whole of society. The annual RoSPA Health and Safety Awards recognise organisations demonstrating outstanding commitment to health and safety, encouraging continuous improvement and excellence. Sandwell Council and Barchester have won awards for their high standards in social care. By highlighting these achievements, RoSPA has helped organisations enhance their care practices, leading to safer and more effective care environments. RoSPA qualifications are designed with relevant organisations to ensure they provide the skills and knowledge to reduce the likelihood of accidents and injuries, and enhance employee morale, productivity and job satisfaction.
Nowhere is this needed more than in adult social care. Launched in January, RoSPA’s Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate is a competence-based qualification covering topics such as personal wellbeing; safeguarding; equality, diversity and inclusion practices; digital skills; career development opportunities; and infection prevention and control. It takes a new learner around six to eight months to complete. For those with more experience, the qualification can help them to realise that everyday tasks they might regard as ‘just part of the job’ are in fact solid skills of which they should be proud and can be honed for a variety of job roles in health and social care.
The value of this has been recognised by the Department of Health and Social Care, which is funding each learner who takes the qualification, making it free for often cash-strapped providers to upskill their staff. Yet while this stands as proof that care work is far from ‘low skilled’, other misconceptions can prevent workers from using their skills to their full potential. In particular, there is a common belief that it is unlawful to provide moving and handling care activities with fewer than two handlers. In a highly pressured environment, this can inadvertently lead to pain and distress for service users waiting for enough staff to be available to help them. It also places unnecessary constraints on workers’ ability to support as many people as they are able to.
New training and skills opportunity
Single-handed care encourages a more personalised approach to supporting a person’s moving and handling requirements. This ensures the person receives the optimum amount of care and support in the correct environment. While the principles of single-handed care have existed for some time, the new Level 2 Proportionate Single-Handed Care qualification, designed by RoSPA in partnership with A1 Risk Solutions Ltd and with the support of Care England, Skills for Care and NHS Trusts, formalises them into an Ofqual regulated qualification for the first time.
Single-handed care has enormous advantages for service users and care workers. By training workers in areas such as risk assessment and the practical delivery of safe moving and handling, single-handed care promotes privacy, independence and flexibility for service users, while not compromising the health, safety and wellbeing of either party. It fulfils many of the tenets of person-centred care, by enabling service users to nurture better one-on-one relationships with carers based around their individual needs. Crucially, in a health and social care system where demand often outstrips resource, it means that care is not overprescribed and does not foster dependency.
It is not only individuals who stand to benefit. Research by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust shows single-handed care reduces readmission rates to hospital within 30 days by 11%, saving time, money and bed space that can be better utilised elsewhere. Frontline adult social care workers are one of the key foundations of the UK’s entire health and care system, and while – like many foundations – they often remain out of sight, it is imperative that they are strengthened and reinforced, not least with respect for the crucial role they play supporting the country’s most vulnerable people.
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Debbie Clueit is Qualifications Portfolio Manager at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
Email: [email protected] X: @Debbie-Clueit-TechIOSH-MIoL