Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that vacancies in the social care workforce are prioritised to prevent further costs to the NHS.

The Government is working alongside stakeholders in the adult social care sector to ensure there is the right number of people, with the right skills, knowledge and values to meet increasing demand, and deliver high quality, person-centred care and support.

In recognition of this, on 12 February the Government launched a new national adult social care recruitment campaign ‘Every Day is Different’. This will raise the image and profile of the sector and encourage people with the right values to apply for current vacancies. The Government also continues to work with its delivery partner Skills for Care to provide a range of resources and practical toolkits for providers to help attract, train and retain staff.

The upcoming Adult Social Care Green Paper will set out the Department’s proposals for reform of the sector to put it on a more sustainable future footing. This will include a vision for workforce and proposals to boost recruitment and retention in the longer term.