By Charlotte Donald, chief care officer of at-home care provider Cera, who leads a team of almost 10,000 frontline carers
Britain has a problem, in the shape of a huge gaping hole in our workforce. UK joblessness is at a 13-year high, with close to a quarter (22 percent) of working-age adults now economically inactive.
Cera has a unique perspective on this problem. On the one hand, we are the UK’s largest technology-led social care provider, supporting many hundreds of people with complex needs back into work.
On the other, we are one of social care’s largest employers, with a deep understanding of how to attract, train and retain large workforces.
25 percent of new Cera recruits over the past three months were previously unemployed, and it’s delightful to watch these employees flourish as they rediscover the joy of work, especially in a sector as emotionally rewarding as care.
Take the story of Mark, a double amputee who has recently found his calling as a carer with Cera after 20 years out of work.
People like Mark need support to get back into work – not because they lack the attributes to be valuable to employers, but because they lack the practical, structural and emotional support which make employment feel attainable.
Care can be part of the solution – but there may be a bigger role for this vital sector to play in re-energising Britain’s millions of missing workers.
Care can offer the career pathway these people need. Over the next 15 years, social care will need half a million more workers to support our rapidly ageing population.
Infamously plagued by staff shortages and negative stereotypes, there is a big job to do to rebuild our social care workforce – but rebuild it we must, or the whole system will collapse.
This has to start with making care more of a career, with real opportunities for progression. Cera is setting a new standard in this space, with dedicated training at all levels, hundreds of active apprenticeships, degree-level nursing qualifications, and formalised career pathways for our people.
We are calling on the Government to make care more of a career by introducing Digital Care Passports, enabling carers to carry proof of skills gained from one employer to the next.
We are also asking the Government to prioritise the rollout of its planned career pathways for care professionals.
This will create the kind of attractive career offering that is needed to rebuild our social care workforce – especially if combined with the time-saving, earnings-boosting potential of AI.
But these structured care career pathways could also be exactly what Britain’s millions of missing workers need.
A career in care can be uniquely rewarding and fulfilling. It can also be flexible, giving people the time and space for other responsibilities like childcare or looking after elderly parents. Caring responsibilities are the second most common reason for joblessness, after long-term sickness.
And from day one, care empowers people to play a vital role in society: ensuring our most vulnerable or elderly people are kept safe, happy and well.
Britain’s millions of missing workers need this kind of empowerment, to remind them of the joy of work. These people need care, and care needs them.
