START DATE AND DURATION: April 2019
Summary
Staff turnover and job vacancy rates are persistently high in UK social care. Understanding the drivers of staff retention and motivators of care staff is important to enable the sector to provide sustainable, high-quality services and meet increasing demand.
This project aims to help social care providers, commissioners, regulators and policy-makers understand the specific organisational and individual drivers of staff retention in the social care sector by exploring:
- What specific characteristics do social care workers have, and how committed are they to their jobs, when compared with workers in other low-wage service industries?
- Why are there differences in retention rates between social care providers, and between social care and other low-wage service industries?
- Why do care workers decide to leave their jobs, and why do some job leavers choose to leave the social care industry altogether?
- What is the impact of COVID-19 on workforce retention and sustainability?
