Workforce strategy ambitions 2024 to 2027 - our progress so far

According to the 2025 Have Your Say survey, 83 per cent of respondents said their morale was good (up from 77 per cent in 2024 and 65 per cent in 2023).​ 

According to the 2025 Have Your Say survey:

- 51 per cent find information from their manager (up from 46 per cent in 2024)  
- 44 per cent find information from their employer’s websites (up from 43 per cent in 2024) 
- 29 per cent find information through Social Care Wales (up from 26 per cent in 2023 but down from 33 per cent in 2023) 
- 11 per cent would access support through Canopi (up from 8 per cent in 2024 and 7 per cent in 2023).

The Have Your Say survey asks respondents about whether they've experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment in the past 12 months from:

- managers:  
- bullying (eight per cent, same as 2024)  
- discrimination (seven per cent, down from eight per cent in 2024)  
- harassment (four per cent, same as 2024).  

- colleagues:  
- bullying (seven per cent, down from eight per cent in 2024)  
- discrimination (five per cent, same as 2024)  
- harassment (four per cent, same as 2024).  

- people they support or their families:  
- bullying (four per cent, down from five per cent in 2024)  
- discrimination (four per cent, down from five per cent in 2024)  
- harassment (six per cent, down from seven per cent in 2024).  

According to the Have Your Say survey, 20 per cent are aiming to leave the sector, in an average of 14 months. This represents a small improvement since 2024, when 25 per cent were intending to leave in an average of 13 months.

Through the Have Your Say survey, we assess the well-being of the workforce using the ONS4. These are four measures used by the Office for National Statistics to capture different types of personal well-being on a scale of 0 to 10. 

We compared the average response from this survey with the UK average for each measure. We also compared the average response from the survey with the averages found in 2024.  Each of the findings below is higher than the UK average and the 2024 averages:

Satisfaction with life: 7.78 (UK average: 7.45, 2024 average 6.54) 
Life is worthwhile: 8.25 (UK average: 7.73, 2024 average 7.11) 
Happiness yesterday: 7.75 (UK average: 7.39, 2024 average 6.58) 
Anxiety: 5.30 (UK average: 3.23, 2024 average 4.35)  

According to the 2025 Have Your Say survey, 50 per cent joined because they wanted to make a difference (down from 69 per cent in 2024 and 63 per cent in 2023). 

Vacancies made up seven per cent of the workforce in 2025 (up from six per cent in 2024 and 2023 but down from nine per cent in 2022) 

The 2025 Have Your Say survey identified four main recruitment and retention challenges facing social care employers: 

- staff retention
- low pay 
- poor working conditions  
- lack of respect and recognition.

We’ve used data from our Register, as at February 2026, to show how long people have been in their current roles across different parts of the social care workforce.  

The figures below shows the average and median years in post for different social care roles, and these figures form the baseline measures for 2025 to 2026. If retention improves, we’d expect to see both the average and the median years in post increase over time. 

Adult care home managers: Average 7.52, Median 4.0
Adult care home workers: Average 5.67, Median 3.0
Domiciliary care managers: Average 7.72, Median 5.0
Domiciliary care workers: Average 6.30, Median 4.0
Residential child care managers: Average 4.13, Median 2.0
Residential child care workers: Average 3.75, Median 3.0
Qualified social workers: Average 6.02, Median 4.0
Other: Average 4.79, Median 4.0

According to the 2025 Have Your Say survey:

- 68 per cent felt valued by their manager (down from 70 per cent in 2024 and up from 61 per cent in 2023)  
- 78 per cent felt valued by their colleagues (down from 80 per cent in 2024 and up from 71 per cent in 2023)  
- 81 per cent felt valued by the people they support (up from 80 per cent in 2024 and 76 per cent in 2023)  
- 56 per cent felt valued by partner agencies (down from 57 per cent in 2024 and up from 48 per cent in 2023)  
- 50 per cent felt valued by the general public (consistent with 51 per cent in 2024 and up from 44 per cent in 2023) 

In January 2025, we commissioned Beaufort Research to ask 1,000 members of the public in Wales a series of questions to find out what they think about the social care sector.  

- 73 per cent said they have confidence in people who work in care (up from 72 per cent in 2023) 
- 65 per cent told us they think residential care workers are always skilled and professional in what they do (down from 67 per cent in 2023) 
- 62 per cent think home care workers are always skilled and professional in what they do (down from 65 per cent in 2023). 

Regional Partnership Boards have been created as part of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act to: 

- improve the well-being of the population 
- improve how health and care services are delivered.

All Regional Partnership Boards must: 

- create a regional population assessment and a regional area plan 
- create a regional annual report 
- show citizen engagement and co-production. 

There are seven Regional Partnership Boards in Wales: 

Cardiff and Vale Regional Partnership Board 
Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional Partnership Board 
Gwent Regional Partnership Board 
West Wales Regional Partnership Board 
North Wales Regional Partnership Board 
West Glamorgan Regional Partnership Board 
Powys Regional Partnership Board.

We published the national themes and findings report of how the SCWWDP grant was invested by regions in 2024 to 2025 in January 2026.

Digital in Social Care (DiSC) Cymru brings together organisations across the social care sector in Wales to work collaboratively on digital change. 

It’s not a single organisation or system, but a structured, sector‑led national partnership that aims to support consistent, person‑centred and sustainable digital transformation across Wales. 

The DiSC Cymru Framework is built around four strategic pillars: 

Big change – driving national reform, supporting health and social care integration, influencing policy and aligning funding.  
Brilliant basics – identifying key challenges and putting key digital building blocks in place to underpin essential data, skills and processes.  
Bright ideas – supporting research, innovation, and pilots that can be scaled and embedded across Wales.  
Building knowledge – establishing mechanisms to share learning, best practice and evidence to reduce duplication and accelerate improvement.  

The pillars are integrated and interdependent, working together to deliver the shared vision of better digital, better social care and better lives. 

DiSC Cymru recognises that digital transformation in social care is not just about technology, but about people, culture, processes and leadership. It helps organisations assess digital maturity, build confidence and use digital tools in ways that improve outcomes for people who need care and support, unpaid carers and the workforce. 

Going forward, impact measures for this theme of building a digitally ready workforce will be developed in partnership with national partners, making sure they’re meaningful, proportionate and aligned to sector priorities

The employer assessment route allows employers to endorse their workers’ application to register after assessing their understanding against a list of areas. This route is for people who don’t have a required qualification. 

As of February 2026, the employer assessed workforce was as follows: 

- adult care home workforce – 53.7 per cent 
- adult care home managers – 54.5 per cent 
- adult care home workers – 56.3 per cent 

- domiciliary care workforce – 44.2 per cent
- domiciliary care managers – 54.1 per cent 
- domiciliary care workers – 46.0 per cent 

- residential care home workforce – 60.5 per cent 
- residential care home managers – 0.8 per cent 
- residential care home workers – 65.3 per cent 

Over time, we’d expect the proportion of workers using the employer assessment route to decrease as individuals complete qualifications needed and renew their registration on that basis.  

But the route will continue to be used by new starters, meaning percentages may reduce gradually rather than disappear completely. Patterns are also likely to vary by job role and workforce stability.

According to the 2025 Have Your Say survey, 86 per cent agreed that they had the right training to do their job well (remaining broadly consistent with 87 per cent in 2024 and up from 79 per cent in 2023) 

A total of 4,670 people completed a health and social care apprenticeship in 2025/2026 (up from 4,251 in 2024/2025)​ 

According to the 2025 Have Your Say survey 43 per cent wanted a leadership role in the future (down from 47 per cent in 2024 but up from 36 per cent in 2023).

The Have Your Say survey found that 73 per cent feel helped and supported by their manager (up from 70 per cent in 2024 and 66 per cent in 2023). 

The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) is a tool to help monitor the experience of people from ethnic minorities who work in health and social care in Wales. Together with Welsh Government and NHS Wales, we’ve published the first WRES social care report. 

The report found that despite an appetite to seek progression, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic social care staff are under-represented in managerial positions. Twenty-two per cent of minority ethnic social care workers falls to seven per cent at a managerial level. 

Vacancies made up seven per cent of the workforce in 2025 (up from six per cent in 2024 and 2023 but down from nine per cent in 2022) 

Wales does not yet have a consistent set of formal regional social care workforce plans across all regions. While RPBs lead PNAs and regional area plans, and there is workforce planning activity at local and regional levels, approaches vary across Wales. Strengthening local and regional workforce planning remains an important area for development to improve alignment between workforce supply, skills, and local population needs. 

Engagement with local authorities during 2025 to 2026 has confirmed that the strategic workforce planning challenges identified in the 2023 scoping study remain. These include limited capacity and capability, ongoing budget pressures, and a lack of consistent tools, systems, and data to support effective workforce planning.  

In recognition of this, national discussions will take place to agree next steps for strengthening social care workforce planning in Wales. These discussions will focus on clarifying expectations, improving support for regions, and exploring what further national enablers may be needed to support more consistent and effective regional workforce planning going forward.