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1E Statutes 101 2, 6-9, 110, 121, 504a
Foundational Copyright (Dec. 1 Boston; Dec. 15 Amherst)
This is the text of Statutes 101 2, 6-9, 110, 121, 504a
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