This study aimed to explore the national policy drivers influencing changes in the adult social care workforce across the four nations of the UK. It addressed research questions regarding key policy reforms, their intended and unintended consequences for the care workforce, and the perceived synergies and tensions between these policy reforms. The final research question examined how existing policy drivers can interact with other macro-level influences to shape workforce change over the long term.
Key themes of workforce change were derived from an extensive literature review and framed as key forces shaping the sector. Following this, we conducted a three-stage consultation involving twenty-five social care stakeholders representing sector bodies, care providers’ associations, trade unions, charities that support individuals accessing social care, informal carers, think tanks, and universities across the four UK nations. The stakeholders challenged, refined, and prioritised our initial findings and assumptions, developing future scenarios for the adult social care workforce by 2035. The consultation took place online between April 2023 and March 2024.