The diversity of staff supporting family carers in England: findings from an analysis of a national data set

Little is known about those employed to support

family carers of disabled people or those with longterm

care needs. The term ‘carer’ is used in England

to refer to family members and others who provide

unpaid regular and substantial support to adults

with disabilities, including older people and others

unable to live independently. Among the wider social

care workforce some staff are employed to provide

support for these carers, but little is known about

the composition and characteristics of this group

of staff. The findings reported in this article are

derived from quantitative secondary analysis of the

National Minimum Data Set for Social Care

(NMDS-SC; n = 499 034), which collects data

from social care employers and reports to Skills

for Care. This data set includes information about

the characteristics of the workforce employed to

support carers and the organisations that employ

them to do so.

Our analysis showed that this support workforce

is mostly female, with a large number of part-time

employees who are based in organisations with

significantly higher turnover and vacancy rates than

other organisations which provide social care. Staff

who support family carers appear to be better

qualified and to have longer experience within the

care sector than other social care workers.

From these findings we conclude that this support

workforce may be affected by staff shortages themselves,

and that high staff turnover rates may undermine

the continuity of support given to family

carers, leading to problems for existing staff. We

argue that developing the potential of social care staff

to support family carers requires specific attention

from social care employers and policy makers.