Editorial Comment: Mystery of the happy staff

The social care workforce never ceases to amaze. A new survey by Skills for Care reveals that, despite low pay and high levels of abuse, the vast majority of those working in adult social care are happy in their work.

But employers and representative bodies cannot afford to look at these figures and be complacent. They must not assume that this army of low-paid, hard-working individuals will soldier on indefinitely: almost half are demanding more training, two-thirds say they are not paid enough, and nearly as many say the public still don’t understand what they do.

Action is required on all three of these areas if we want the two-thirds of adult care workers who expect to stay in social care for the next five years to remain motivated. At a time when demands for their services are only set to grow, surely none of us can afford for this workforce to continue to feel undervalued.

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Lauren Revans