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 improve recruitment and retention in the adult social care sector.

The government recognises that there are ongoing challenges with domestic recruitment in adult social care and that the sector has become overly reliant on international recruitment. While the adult social care workforce in England grew by 4.2% in 2023/24, the number of posts in adult social care filled by people with a British nationality has decreased.

The government recognises the scale of reforms needed to make the adult social care sector attractive, to support sustainable workforce growth and reduce the reliance on international recruitment.