I want to talk about something that came up in three separate conversations with care managers last week.
All three had posted roles. All three had a stack of applications. None of them had hired anyone yet, not because the candidates weren’t there, but because the process between ‘someone applied’ and ‘someone started’ was so chaotic that good people had dropped out or accepted something else.
One manager told me she’d spent six hours screening CVs on a Tuesday, then didn’t get back to anyone until Thursday because she had safeguarding reviews. By Friday, two of her best applicants had accepted offers elsewhere.
This is not a recruitment problem. This is a systems problem. And it’s costing the sector more than most people realise.
This issue is about the Employment Rights Bill, what it means for care, and why the providers who sort their internal processes out now will be in a much stronger position when it lands properly.
The Employment Rights Bill: what care providers need to know
The Employment Rights Bill is working its way through Parliament and, once enacted, will introduce a series of changes that will affect how care providers hire, manage, and retain staff. The key ones to know.
Day-one unfair dismissal rights. Currently, employees need two years of service before they can claim unfair dismissal. Under the Bill, that protection would apply from day one of employment. For care providers with high turnover in the first few months, this changes the risk profile of getting onboarding wrong.
Zero-hours contract reforms. The Bill will give workers the right to request a guaranteed-hours contract after 12 weeks. Many care providers use flexible staffing models that rely on zero-hours arrangements. That flexibility may need rethinking.
Collective redundancy thresholds. Changes to how collective redundancy consultations are triggered could affect larger care groups during restructures.
The Fair Pay Agreement for social care is also tied into wider Employment Rights legislation, though the first pay increases aren’t expected until 2028. The negotiating body regulations come into force October 2026.
None of this is necessarily bad for workers. But for care providers with no HR function and a manager already at capacity, it adds complexity to an already complex picture. The providers who will handle this best are the ones who have clear, documented processes, especially around onboarding and the first 90 days.
Domestic recruitment: the pipeline isn’t what it was
With international recruitment effectively halted, Skills for Care data shows that British nationality workers in the sector actually declined by 30,000 (a 2.6% decrease) between 2023/24 and 2024/25. At the same time, international recruits dropped from 105,000 to 50,000 over the same period.
The maths here isn’t complicated. Demand is growing. The workforce supply is contracting. And the government’s solution, better career pathways, a Fair Pay Agreement, more apprenticeships, is years away from delivering meaningful volume.
Which means every care provider is competing harder for the same domestic pool of candidates right now. And in that environment, the speed at which you move, the quality of your candidate experience, and the strength of your employer brand are the things that determine whether the good ones pick you or someone else.
111,000 vacant care posts in England as of March 2025.
Care Workforce Pathway: what it means in practice
In April 2025, the government updated the Care Workforce Pathway, a national career structure for adult social care workers. It outlines nine distinct roles, from ‘new to care’ right through to registered manager. The goal is to make the sector more attractive by giving people visible progression routes.
In theory, good. In practice, most SME care providers don’t have the infrastructure to implement structured career pathways without external support. The pathway exists, but the systems to track, develop and retain people through it often don’t.
71% of providers report finding it challenging to recruit staff. The pathway is a step in the right direction but it’s not a quick fix.
Why your job ad is the least important part of your hiring process
Most care providers spend the most time and money on the bit of hiring that matters least: the job ad.
And almost no time on the bits that actually determine whether good candidates accept your offer and stay beyond 90 days.
Think about it. If your application process takes 45 minutes and asks for information you’ll just ask for again at interview, you’re filtering out the good candidates who have options. The ones who’ll wade through a broken process are often the ones who have no other offers.
If your confirmation emails don’t send automatically (or at all), candidates assume something went wrong and apply somewhere else.
If your interview scheduling is done by text message chain, you look disorganised before they’ve even met you. And first impressions in care recruitment run both ways.
If nobody follows up after the interview, the candidate you wanted has started somewhere else by the time you get round to it.
The job ad is the invitation. Everything after it is the actual experience. Most care providers have a reasonable invitation and a chaotic experience.
The providers consistently outperforming on hiring right now have one thing in common: their process is faster and more professional than their competitors. Not their salary, not their job board spend. Their process.
What a better process looks like
At minimum:
- An application that takes 5 to 10 minutes, not 45.
- Screening questions that filter properly so you’re not reading 47 CVs to find three good ones.
- An automatic acknowledgement email sent within minutes of applying.
- Interview slots that candidates can book themselves without a phone tag marathon.
- A structured follow-up within 24 to 48 hours of interview, every time.
None of this requires expensive software. It requires a system, one that runs consistently regardless of how busy the manager is that week.
One thing you can do this week
Map your candidate drop-off points.
Take your last five recruitment campaigns and work out where candidates fell out of the process:
- How many applied vs how many you screened?
- How many screened vs how many you invited to interview?
- How many were invited vs how many showed up?
- How many were offered vs how many accepted?
Most care providers doing this for the first time discover a significant drop between ‘screened’ and ‘showed up to interview.’ That gap almost always comes down to slow response times or a clunky scheduling process. Fix that one thing and your conversion rate improves meaningfully.
“The sector needs 470,000 more workers by 2040. That does not happen by accident, it requires process, investment, and a reason for people to choose care.” — Skills for Care / Health Foundation analysis