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"Recruitment and retention of appropriate staff is the most critical issue that faces social care services in all sectors."
Denise Platt, chief inspector of social services

"This is the front line. If it wasn't for us there wouldn't be care in the community."
Domiciliary care worker

The Audit Commission's report on public service recruitment and retention was based on feedback from focus groups comprising potential and current public sector staff as well leavers who were interviewed over the telephone. They were asked why they left and what would have persuaded them to stay. The people included social workers, senior social services managers and domiciliary care staff. As our survey showed, there is a high level of commitment among social workers and care staff.


So what do we know? Demand for staff - much of it driven by new investment in public services - is outstripping supply. Although there are problems in all regions, there are particularly acute pressures in London and the South East.

At the individual level, there are common messages about why people join the social care workforce.

"You get a great deal of satisfaction from it. When you can walk out of an elderly person's house and leave them with a smile on their face you know you've done a good job. They are clean, warm, comfortable and safe."
Current domiciliary care worker

"I think another positive thing about being a social worker is that you advocate for people, you empower people, you sort of open their minds by just mentioning something, and you can see the changes within them, and that's brilliant."
Current social worker

"I think there is greater satisfaction in the job, in making a difference. At the end of the day it's very nice to make a lot of money, but it is quite nice to feel that when you're going to work it is about something very constructive."
Senior social services manager

The single biggest reason people identified for joining the public sector as a whole is the opportunity to "make a difference" in the lives of individual clients and local communities. This was true across all staff groups in social care and at all levels. Domiciliary care workers and senior managers found it frustrating if they could not focus their energies on improving the experience of service users.

"Social work now is less about social working if you like, it's rather about filling in forms, it's about accountability all the time, which I'm not undermining at all, but it's so repetitive, the bureaucracy takes away from what I think most of us thought we were training for."
Current social worker

"As a social worker, you think I've tried to do something purposeful and sensible and you're shafted for it by a bunch of slimy journalists."
Current social worker


"You feel the public sector is being done to rather than being celebrated."
Senior social services manager

Staff are leaving the public sector because they feel that their working environment does not allow them to do what they came into the job to do - make a positive difference.

The key barriers are paperwork, targets and change initiatives that do not feel relevant, lack of resources to deliver a good service and lack of autonomy to tailor approaches to individuals. This feeling is exacerbated by a sense that their commitment is not matched by their status and their reward package. Key issues here are feeling undervalued by government, managers and the public, and feeling insufficiently rewarded - in pay, and in recognition and thanks for a job well done.

Seven out of 10 leavers believe that the image of their job discourages recruits, and this is particularly acute in social care. Domiciliary care staff think that they are generally seen as "glorified cleaners", with the care side of their work poorly understood.

Social workers feel they are either pitied or blamed, but rarely respected as competent professionals dealing with issues so complex that they were once recognised as "the tightrope walkers of the welfare state".

Listening to staff tells us that there are no simple solutions. There are long-term issues around supply and demand, particularly about professional staff, which can only be addressed by investment and training. But there are immediate pressures in the work experience of current staff, and here local action can make a difference.

Government and national bodies too must play a key role - seeking opportunities to value rather than devalue the contribution of public service workers. It is in all our interests that committed staff can continue to make a difference.

- Recruitment & Retention: A Public Services Workforce for the 21st Century is available online at www.audit-commission.gov.uk or in print by telephoning 0800 502030.