Skills for Care data on the adult social care workforce

“Workforce investment and quality improvement are not competing priorities – they are two sides of the same coin.” - Professor Oonagh Smyth, Chief Executive, Skills for Care

On 14 October 2026, Skills for Care published its report on the State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England in 2026. We welcome Professor Smyth’s observation that investing in the workforce and improving quality are not competing priorities.

There’s a wealth of data in the report and it’s helpful to see and understand trends within the workforce. It’s great to hear about the positive impact of the Care Workforce Pathway in terms of providing greater clarity on roles and opportunities within the sector.

However, we are deeply concerned that over half of care workers have no social care qualifications and the number of people holding a Level 2 qualification is decreasing. Furthermore, nearly a third have no recorded instances of taking part in any training to develop their skills.

Care workers are dealing with complex care needs, often under pressure. We welcome ongoing monitoring of the training that the workforce is undertaking, but it is vital that there is greater investment in developing the skills of the workforce to ensure quality, dignified care. The data is clear that when people are trained and feel confident in their roles, they stay in post longer. But, it is hard to square the current lack of mandatory qualifications and training with the fact that 47% of the workforce is undertaking delegated healthcare activities in addition to providing other vital day to day personalised care and support.

We hope that the work developing what a National Care Service might look like will include consideration of: who should provide what care in different settings; what qualifications and support people need to feel confident with delivering good care and how will this be funded.

It cannot simply be left for different providers to upskill care workers, this just leads to inconsistencies. High quality, safe care can only be provided when there is consensus about what skills, knowledge and qualifications the adult social care workforce needs – and when there is sufficient investment to fund its training and development.