Workforce conversations have been dominated by vacancy rates, agency reliance and international recruitment for years, but now operators also face a more complicated set of employment, immigration and cost pressures that require a practical response, explains Georgina Richards.
When the health and care worker visa route opened to care workers in 2022, it gave the sector some breathing room, as it enabled many providers to widen recruitment pools quickly, fill shifts that were becoming increasingly difficult to cover and reduce pressure on permanent teams. For some homes, international recruitment became an important part of their operating model.
Fast forward to 2026, and that model looks very different. Skills for Care's 2025 workforce data shows that adult social care in England had around 1.71 million posts in 2024/25 — of which about 1.6m were filled. The vacancy rate fell to 7 per cent, equivalent to around 111,000 vacant posts. On the surface, that is more stable than the height of the recruitment crisis. However, in practice, a lower vacancy rate does not mean staffing has become easy.
Many homes are still competing for the same limited domestic workforce, while managing higher employment costs, more complex compliance obligations and rising expectations around flexibility and predictability. The needs of people living in care homes are also changing, with many providers supporting those with greater frailty and more complex dementia care requirements. That makes workforce planning a board-level issue, not just a rota problem.
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