In 2023/24, there were over 131,000 adult social care vacancies in England. These vacancies affect recruitment across every part of the sector and put real pressure on leadership, morale, and staffing retention. The numbers are high, but the impact is felt most in the everyday work of care teams.
These aren’t just statistics. They show up as short-staffed shifts, tired teams, and people walking away from jobs they once loved. We see this every day through our work with residential care, supported living, and mental health services.
At SNG Healthcare, we speak to providers and care workers across the country. The stories they share tell us a lot about what’s going wrong with recruitment—and what helps people stay. Poor leadership, low morale, and constant churn all play a part. So does the way roles are matched, or not matched, to the right people.
Getting recruitment right is one of the most powerful ways to improve staff retention and build stronger teams. It starts with listening.
What Drives People to Leave Jobs in Social Care
We speak to candidates who love the work itself, but who are tired of constantly covering for others. Some haven’t had proper supervision in months. Others are dealing with inflexible rotas that make home life impossible.
Burnout is a common theme. So is feeling overlooked. In some services, there’s no one to check in when things are difficult. In others, support workers are given heavy responsibilities with little training or follow-up. Over time, even the most passionate staff begin to lose faith in the system.
Why People Choose to Stay
When someone tells us they’ve stayed with the same service for years, we always ask why. The answers are strikingly consistent.
They stay because their manager supports them. Because the team has each other’s backs. Because they’re respected, not just relied on. Many describe workplaces where they feel able to grow, where new ideas are welcomed, and where good work doesn’t go unnoticed.
Research by The King’s Fund and Skills for Care backs this up: staff are more likely to stay when they feel valued, supported by their manager, and part of a positive team culture. Career development, recognition, and wellbeing matter just as much as pay.
Not Every Job Suits Every Person
In a sector with thousands of vacancies, there’s often pressure to move fast. Fill the gap. Get someone in. But when a placement doesn’t fit, everyone feels it.
We’ve seen excellent care workers leave within days when the setting wasn’t right. We’ve also seen services waste months onboarding someone who was never going to settle.
Good recruitment means understanding what a person brings, not just what’s written on a CV. It means matching someone’s temperament, experience, and values with the service itself. That takes time, and it takes proper communication on both sides.
Morale Can’t Be Repaired Overnight
When a team is stretched, small things start to slip. Staff begin to take more sick days. Handover notes get rushed. The pace of care becomes reactive rather than planned.
There’s a cost to this, and it’s not always visible straight away. Morale drops quietly. One or two team members start looking elsewhere. A resident becomes withdrawn because their favourite carer keeps disappearing.
Poor management can make this worse. When there’s no consistent leadership, staff stop feeling heard. According to Skills for Care’s Workforce Strategy, poor wellbeing and lack of recognition from managers are among the top reasons people leave. On the other hand, supportive leadership and regular check-ins are proven to boost staff morale and retention.
What We See Day to Day
We often say that “behind every vacancy there’s a story.” That’s something our directors, Rebecca and Ebele, come back to a lot, and they’re right. You can’t place the right person if you don’t understand what happened before.
Sometimes a team is short because someone moved on to a new role. Sometimes it’s burnout. Sometimes it’s about leadership, or shift patterns, or something harder to name. Whatever it is, we try to get to the bottom of it by listening. Not just to candidates, but to the managers and teams we work with.
That means asking the right questions. Why did the last person leave? What’s changed in the team? What’s the service like on a busy day? We want to understand that fully before we start suggesting people. It helps us make better matches, and most importantly it helps services hold onto good staff for longer.
Candidates deserve honesty too. We’re upfront about what a service is really like. Some people thrive in fast-paced environments. Others prefer slower, more stable settings. It’s our job to spot that. Because when a placement works for everyone, people stay. And things settle.
Looking Ahead
Building the future care workforce takes more than new roles and digital platforms. It takes people. People who feel heard. People who want to stay. People who are supported to do their jobs well.
That starts at recruitment.
If we want a care sector that lasts, we need to get the first step right.
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