Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to tackle the problems with the (1) recruitment, and (2) retention, of social care staff.

On 21 October 2021, the Department announced a new £162.5 million Workforce Recruitment and Retention fund to support local authorities working with providers to recruit and retain social care staff this winter. The next phase of the national adult social care recruitment campaign will be launched in early November and we are also working alongside the Department for Work and Pensions to promote adult social care careers in job centres. In addition, we will invest at least £500 million across three years in social care workforce professionalisation and development, wellbeing and mental health support, to improve retention of staff in the sector.