Reflections on the mental health workforce

Kathy Roberts, CEO of the Association of Mental Health Providers, shares an update on their project mapping the mental health workforce.

As the latest data from Skills for Care’s Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) reveals, the social care sector is one of the largest health and social employers in England; total number of posts in adult social care in England, including filled posts and staff vacancies, was 1.79 million in 2022-3 - an increase of 0.5% from the previous year.

According to the data, the total number of filled posts in adult social care in 2022-3 was estimated at 1.635 million.

These posts were filled by 1.52m people which is 5.2% of the total workforce in England, and more than the number of people working in the NHS, schools, or food and drink manufacturing.

While this workforce data shows the vacancy rate decreased to 9.9%, or around 152,000 on any given day, compared with 10.6% (around 164,000) the previous year, recruitment is still a critical issue; at nearly 10%, this vacancy rate is still higher than previous years, and the data vacancy gap is up to three times higher in Adult Social Care than other sectors, and 2% higher than the NHS.

The Skills for Care Workforce Data team should be commended for the enormous amount of work gone into creating this very valuable resource when demonstrating the adult social care workforce as a whole.

The diversity of social care

Adult social care covers a vast range of services for people with a diverse range of needs and levels of support. People with physical and learning disabilities, poor mental health and illness, older people, substance misuse… the list goes on, and all are equally deserving of receiving the quality care and support they need.

While the Skills for Care workforce figures show there is a positive emergence trend of more people employed in the social care workforce overall, there are still areas of concern, particularly when it comes to specialists in the mental health workforce.

Mapping the mental health workforce

According to the Census 2021 data, there are 2.9 million people with bad or very bad health, and we know 8 million people in the community receive support from mental health charities.

Our Mental Health Social Care Workforce and Census Data dashboard combines data from The Association’s members, Skills for Care workforce data and Census 2021 data; this includes demographic data relating to gender, ethnicity, religion, age, health status, and hours of unpaid care provision.

By bringing these datasets together in one place, we hope to improve understanding of how local, regional and national labour markets interact and what these interactions mean for mental health workforce planning locally and regionally, particularly when reviewing specialist positions.

Our mental health workforce mapping resource shows:

• Overall, the mental health workforce has over 536,000 positions filled, of which over 16,000 are specialist positions.
• Over the last five years, the overall mental health workforce decreased by over 11,000 and of concern, the specialist workforce by almost 7,000.
• 27% of the overall and 9% of the specialist workforce is on zero-hour contracts, and 88% of the whole workforce have a permanent employment status.

Giving deeper insights at a local Integrated Care Board (ICB) level, the mapping tool shows Northeast London has seen a reduction in specialist workforce over the past 5 years by 950 and Greater Manchester by 700. By comparison, Surrey Heartlands ICB specialist workforce has increased by 400 over the past 5 years and Frimley by 350.

Like every provider of social care in England and Wales, our 300 plus members, delivering over 3,000 services locally, regionally, and nationally, have highlighted concerns in recruiting and retaining staff, impacting their ability to deliver services effectively.

Furthermore, there are issues around speciality care professionals, and when looking at recruitment, while there is an increase in positions filled, many service providers are still having to rely on agency staff, which incur more costs than paid employees.

With the demand and acuity rising across mental health social care provision, we will have to consider the retention and support to our workforce as the days become shorter and winter pressures begins.

In October, Skills for Care will release of the full 2023 data report and show the overall Integrated Care Board detail and further breakdown of our members workforce but what all reports show, is we still need an adult social care workforce plan and consideration for greater support for mental health social care roles, particularly in the specialist roles.

The Association looks forward to working closely with NHS England and Skills for Care to enrich the national picture of workforce insights and ensure we have future stability for voluntary, community and social enterprise mental health service providers.

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