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Skills for Care conducts research and provides robust data analysis on the social care workforce in the UK. Their main research areas include the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC) and ad-hoc projects. This article explores the NMDS-SC, its progress to date, and its potential for future workforce projections and care worker pay.
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Workforce research atSkills 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 • National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC) • Ad-hoc projects (mainly quantitative) • Regional research – mainly to support regional activities • 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 self-funders and non-social services council staff. • Private sector 805,000 (53%) • Voluntary sector 265,000 (18%) • Councils 221,000 (15%) • NHS 62,000 (4%) • Recipients of direct payments 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: 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