National Audit Office warns government over pressure on '˜poorly rewarded' social care staff

Vacancies among social care nurses more than doubled between 2012-13 and 2016-17 to nine per cent last year, the National Audit Office report said.

There were around 1.34m adult social care jobs in England and around half of care workers were paid £7.50 last year.

The Department of Health and Social Care has estimated that the workforce will need to grow by 2.6 per cent every year until 2035.

But growth in the number of jobs since 2013 has been at two per cent or lower.

Local authorities spent 5.3 per cent less on care in 2016-17 compared with 2010-11.

In Yorkshire and Humber around 36,000 people in adult social care left their jobs in a 12-month period.

Around 20 per cent of the region’s adult social care workforce is on zero-hours contracts.