Homecare Association response to DHSC's wave 2 adult social care workforce survey

The Homecare Association has welcomed publication of the second wave of the Department of Health and Social Care’s adult social care workforce survey, while cautioning that its encouraging findings must be read alongside the unresolved funding, commissioning, recruitment and retention pressures facing homecare. Skills for Care data show the vacancy rate in homecare in 2025/26 remained high at 9.1%, over four times the economy-wide average. 

The survey, carried out by Ipsos with Skills for Care, the University of Kent and King’s College London, finds that wellbeing and care work-related quality of life have improved since 2023. Notably, people working in homecare report a higher quality of life than those in any other care setting. At the same time, a majority of the workforce continue to report insufficient financial security, almost half say their pay is too low, and most workers who carry out delegated healthcare tasks receive no additional pay for doing so. This last finding matches the Homecare Association’s own Workforce Survey 2025, in which most providers reported that neither they nor their careworkers are paid more for delivering clinical tasks delegated by the NHS.

The report also raised the important issue of harassment and violence at work. Employers must take this seriously. New legislation is being introduced in October that will introduce stronger protections. Respondents working in homecare reported lower levels of violence than residential care workers in this survey; however, this figure (29%) is still extremely high. Care providers are often trying to balance individual’s right to care against managing their behaviour towards staff (which is sometimes related to cognitive impairments). The sector needs clear sector-specific guidance on harassment, and we call on the government to progress this before the legislative change in October.

Dr Jane Townson, Chief Executive of the Homecare Association, said:

“This is a valuable and carefully conducted piece of research, and we welcome it. It confirms something we see every day: homecare is skilled, meaningful work, and people who do it report a higher quality of working life than colleagues in other settings. That deserves to be recognised.

“We would, however, urge caution in how the improvements are read. Wave 1 was measured in the shadow of the pandemic, so some of the recovery reflects a return to normality rather than a structural improvement, and the report itself notes that a weaker labour market may be persuading people to stay. The deeper picture has not changed. A majority of careworkers still report financial insecurity, and the workers most affected by insecure, zero-hours arrangements are the hardest to reach in a survey of this kind.

“The findings on pay are the ones policymakers should act on. Careworkers value guaranteed hours and fair pay for travel, training and anti-social hours, yet government purchases too much homecare for client contact time alone. The survey also shows that most careworkers conducting delegated healthcare tasks, work once done by nurses, receive no additional pay, which mirrors our own evidence that the funding and clinical support for delegation are simply not there.

Fair pay cannot be delivered by raising a headline hourly rate in a market where many councils already pay below the cost of lawful employment. Our minimum price for homecare in England is £34.42 per hour, while the average fee paid is around £24 per hour. Until that gap is closed, and until care is commissioned in a way that lets providers offer secure, paid shifts, neither the Fair Pay Agreement nor the Employment Rights Act will improve conditions on the ground.

“We look forward to working with the Department, Skills for Care and others to ensure that workforce reform is matched by the funding and commissioning reform that makes it possible.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

• The Homecare Association is the UK’s largest care association and the leading membership body for homecare providers, with over 2,100 members nationally. Its mission is to ensure society values and invests in homecare, so we can all live well at home and flourish in our communities. The Homecare Association acts as a trusted voice, taking a lead in shaping homecare, in collaboration with partners across the care sector. It also provides hands-on support and practical tools for its members. The Homecare Association's members agree to abide by the Association's Code of Practice.
• Skills for Care (2026) reports the vacancy rate in domiciliary care in 2025/26 as 9.1%.
• The total number of PAYE-registered or VAT-registered organisations (enterprises) involved in providing or organising adult social care in England as at 2024/25 was estimated at 19,000. Two in five (42%) were providing residential services and three in five (58%) were providing non-residential services (Skills for Care, 2025).
• Local authorities and the NHS buy 70-80% of all care services (LaingBuisson 2024), including 96% of supported living, 89% of care homes for younger adults, 79% of homecare and 57% of older people’s care homes. Market structure figures are from LaingBuisson, the sole independent company contracted to the Office for National Statistics to provide statistics on the independent health and social care sector: https://go.laingbuisson.com/homecare-report-7
• NHS funding represents 25% (£1,692 million) of the total funding for homecare (£6,656 million). The rest comes from councils (50%; £3,348 million); direct payments (3%; £212 million); private-pay (21%; £1,375 million); and other (1%; £30 million) (LaingBuisson 2024).
• The Homecare Association’s Homecare Deficit 2025 report has highlighted inadequate funding of homecare which has a direct impact on careworker wages because employment costs comprise 70-90% of total homecare costs.
• The Homecare Association’s Voices of Homecare Report 2025 complements and reinforces many of the themes in this new DHSC wave 2 ASC workforce survey. https://www.homecareassociation.org.uk/resource/voices-of-homecare-workforce.html