Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the level of turnover of social care staff.

The Department continues to work with its delivery partner, Skills for Care, to improve standards of training and qualifications of social care workers include increasing the uptake of the Care Certificate and qualifications in social care.

In addition, the Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across social care and recognises the significant challenges in supporting and retaining our social care workforce. We are working with Skills for Care, to understand trends in retention and turnover rates of social care staff and will use this information to develop policies to address any workforce gaps. The Government has committed to publish an Adult Social Care Green Paper at the earliest opportunity setting out its proposals for reform in this sector.

Recruiting more people to work in the sector is a priority for this Government and we are launching a national adult social care recruitment campaign in early February. This will raise the profile of the sector, build awareness of the rich variety of careers on offer, and attract the right people, with the right values, to deliver the very best care. The campaign will also support providers to improve their recruitment and retention practices.