Why care workers stay: what the 2026 workforce report tells employers

Every October, Skills for Care publishes the most detailed picture we have of the adult social care workforce in England. This year's report, The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England, carries one finding every registered manager should pin above their desk: care worker turnover falls from 34.3% to 15.3% when employers get the fundamentals right together.

That is not a marginal gain. In a service with 40 care workers, it is the difference between replacing 14 people a year and replacing six.

The headline numbers

Vacancies are back to pre-pandemic levels. That sounds like good news, and partly it is, but the detail is more sobering:

• Filled posts grew by just 1.4% in the year to March 2026, the slowest growth in four years.
• International recruitment has fallen by more than 70% in two years, and there are fewer British workers in the sector.
• Only 7% of the workforce is under 25, against 12% of the wider working population, and turnover among under-25s runs at 35.5%.
• Just 37% of care and support workers hold a Level 2 qualification or above, down from 48% in 2018/19.
• Non-nursing staff carry out delegated healthcare activities in 59% of the CQC-regulated services that answered the question.

The pipeline of new staff is narrowing, qualification levels are falling, and the work itself is becoming more clinical. Retention is no longer a nice-to-have. It is the strategy.

What actually keeps people

The report is clear that no single lever works on its own. The steep fall in turnover comes when employers combine five things:

1. Pay at or above the local average rate
2. Guaranteed hours
3. Full-time work
4. Training
5. A relevant qualification

Leadership matters on top of these. Care worker turnover falls from 28.3% to 20.6% as registered manager experience increases. Experienced managers keep teams together, which makes your registered manager's development, and their own retention, a direct investment in frontline stability.

Why training sits at the centre

In my experience, training does three jobs at once. It makes care safer. It tells staff they are worth investing in. And it gives them a visible route forward, which matters most to the under-25s the sector is losing fastest.

The drop in Level 2 qualifications is the figure that concerns me most. A care worker giving insulin, managing a PEG feed or spotting early sepsis needs more than a one-hour induction video. When staff feel underprepared for the work in front of them, they leave, and often they leave care altogether. Our article on delegated healthcare activities looks at that gap in detail.

Five things to do this quarter

1. Map your turnover by length of service. If people leave in their first few months, look at induction and shadowing before anything else.
2. Offer guaranteed hours where you can. Even a guaranteed minimum for core staff signals security.
3. Put every new starter on the Care Certificate, then on a Level 2 route, and show them the next step on day one.
4. Invest in your registered manager. Leadership development is a retention tool, not a perk.
5. Match training to the delegated tasks staff actually do. If your team handles delegated healthcare activities, their training must cover them.

What this means for the next five years

The sector cannot rely on international recruitment to fill the gap any more. The services that thrive over the next five years will be the ones people want to stay in, and the evidence shows how to build them.