Our adult social care workforce

The adult social care workforce in Cumberland is a vital component of our local health and social care system, which is dedicated to supporting the wellbeing of its ageing and vulnerable population.

Our adult social care workforce faces a number of challenges:

• local recruitment is a major challenge with providers facing competition from other sectors
• Cumberland has a ‘super-ageing’ population with a reducing working age population
• a number of services or residents requiring support at home are in rural and
• remote locations, making it difficult for workers to travel to deliver care

In response to these challenges, the council is undertaking the following workforce
measures:

• promotion of ethical overseas recruitment to bring new care staff into the Cumberland region
• use of technology to streamline administrative tasks and improve care delivery
• promotion of the Real Living Wage to support providers to recruit and retain staff within the sector
• supporting the development of an adult social care workforce strategy and partnership working with Skills for Care to provide training and support

Key employment statistics across Cumberland

Over 2,150 care staff, 170 nurses and 790 non-care staff employed in care homes

Over 2,130 staff providing care services within community settings

26 providers holding licenses to support international recruitment

Key workforce statistics (Skills for Care data for Cumberland)

12% of independent sector care staff are employed on zero-hour contracts (England is 28%).

Vacancy rate for independent care staff is 9.9% (England is 9.3%).

56% of independent care staff have a qualification relevant to social care and 46% have completed the Care Certificate (England is 47% and 46%, respectively).

Turnover rate is 31.1% for independent care staff (England is 28.3%).