Lowest vacancy rate in a decade, but built on a closing international route and a falling domestic workforce
London, 24nth June 2026
The Care Workers’ Charity welcomes Skills for Care’s The size and structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England, 2025/26, which reports the lowest vacancy rate in a decade and another year of growth in filled posts. This is real progress, and it reflects the commitment of a workforce that has held this sector together through some of its hardest years. The report is also candid that this progress rests on foundations that are not yet secure, and that is the picture we see in the care workers we support every day.
The headline numbers are encouraging. Filled posts rose 1.4% to 1.59 million, the vacancy rate fell to 6.2%, and turnover dropped to 23.6% (Skills for Care, 2025/26). The commitment behind those figures is not in doubt. Our 2025 Wellbeing Survey of more than 2,000 care workers found that 87% feel they make a real difference to the people they support (The Care Workers’ Charity, Wellbeing Survey, 2025). This is a workforce that wants to stay.
But the recovery was built on international recruitment while the domestic workforce shrinks. Posts filled by British nationals fell by 40,000 in a single year and by 130,000 since 2020/21 (Skills for Care, 2025/26). We see the other side of this directly: our 2025 Impact Report set out how internationally recruited workers can lose their employment and housing when a provider’s sponsor licence is revoked, and in 2025 we awarded £84,000 to 191 displaced recruits through our International Recruitment East project alone (The Care Workers’ Charity, Impact Report, 2025). That route is now closing, with international arrivals into direct care down from 105,000 in 2023/24 to 30,000 in 2025/26 (Skills for Care, 2025/26). At the same time, the path to security for those already here has lengthened, with the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain extended to 15 years. The sector is asking these workers to stay while making it harder for them to build a stable life in the country they are helping to care for.
With both pipelines under pressure, the case for making care a career people choose at home has never been more urgent. The reasons people leave are not a mystery. Our Wellbeing Survey found 72% of care workers do not feel financially secure and 37% often think about leaving, with pay the leading reason (The Care Workers’ Charity, Wellbeing Survey, 2025). Skills for Care projects an extra 410,000 posts will be needed by 2040 to keep pace with the ageing population (Skills for Care, 2025/26). Rising demand, a falling domestic workforce and a closing international route cannot be reconciled without a serious plan to recruit and retain people at home, and a fair settlement for the international workers already here.
Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity, said:
“This report is good news, and we should say so. A vacancy rate at its lowest in a decade is the result of hundreds of thousands of people choosing this work, often for far less than it is worth. But Skills for Care are right to be honest about what holds that progress up. We have grown the workforce from overseas while the number of British care workers has fallen by 130,000 in five years, and the visa route that made that possible has now closed. At the same time, we are asking the international care workers already here to wait 15 years for indefinite leave to remain, which is a long time to ask someone to hold their life in place. The way to build a stable workforce is to make care a job people can afford to do, and to give the people already doing it a fair route to settle. We are ready to work with Government, employers and commissioners to turn this progress into something that lasts, and to bring care workers into shaping the plan that does it, through our Care Worker Advisory Board.”
What needs to change
The Care Workers’ Charity is calling on Government to:
- Set out a credible plan for domestic recruitment and retention, with the pay and conditions needed to attract and keep a British and settled workforce as the international route narrows.
- Bring forward interim pay measures now, ahead of the Fair Pay Agreement.
- Provide a stable, fair settlement for the internationally recruited care workers already here.
- Co-produce workforce planning with care workers themselves, through bodies such as the Care Worker Advisory Board.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Interviews available:
- Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity — available for TV, radio and print interviews. Karolina is a former care worker, regularly briefs MPs and government on social care workforce policy, and has been quoted in national media including BBC News, the Guardian and the Times.
- Care workers with lived experience — CWC can connect journalists with care workers willing to speak on the record about pay, working conditions, and reliance on the charity’s hardship grants. Case studies available on request.
About The Care Workers’ Charity (CWC)
The Care Workers’ Charity is the only UK charity dedicated to supporting paid care workers across the social care sector. We have provided over £6.8 million in crisis grants to over 13,800 care workers since 2020. We offer mental wellbeing support to care workers, ensuring they receive assistance during challenging times. The CWC provides accredited Mental Health First Aid training to care workers and other staff and advocates for policy changes to improve lives and working conditions in the UK. We participate in government roundtables, academic forums, and policy discussions, sharing insights from our grant applicants’ experiences. To learn more about our mission and initiatives, visit www.thecareworkerscharity.org.uk.
Registered charity no. 1207208. Registered office: Rushworth Studios, 63 Webber Street, London SE1 0QW.
Broadcast-ready clips, b-roll, photography and care worker case studies available on request.
Media contact: Shanna Wells | shanna@thecwc.org.uk | 07930 992443