The Health and Social Care Sector

The health and social care sector is large and complex, made up of clinical and non-clinical roles with the NHS as the largest employer. The private sector and voluntary organisations provide additional services. Career paths are structured but flexible – it is possible to move between roles once in the sector and build a long-term career.

There are long-standing staff shortages across the sector, exacerbated by Brexit and the pandemic, so recruitment is continual at both entry and experienced levels.

NHS The NHS is the largest employer in Europe, and in Cornwall. Not all health and social care roles are in the NHS though, there are many large and small private providers.
Community While many roles are in clinical settings (hospitals, doctors' surgeries, dental practices), many are community based and can involve supporting vulnerable adults and young people.
Technology Technology is having a big impact on the sector and having or training in digital skills will be increasingly valuable.

Proud to Care 

The work of Proud to Care Cornwall is guided by the workforce needs of this large and diverse sector. Proud to Care have a dual focus – the first is public facing to raise the profile of jobs and careers in adult social care and encourage people to find employment in the sector, and secondly to provide information and support to adult social care employers. Areas of work include Recruitment and Retention, Learning and Development and the Wellbeing of the workforce. 

Sector Outlook 

Within the sector, the largest proportion of staff work as care workers or home carers, followed by administrative roles and then nurses. Within Cornwall, the demand is highest for nurses, followed by care workers and home carers and then nursing auxiliaries and assistants. An ongoing concern for the sector is that the aging population in the UK will require a larger adult social care workforce, at a time when employers are struggling to recruit, especially younger employees. 

Technology and innovation are already offering different approaches to the provision of health and care, helping to offset the growing demand for services. There has been a huge rise in healthcare services globally being delivered remotely, termed ‘e-health’. This was accelerated during the pandemic but is part of a wider trend. While there are challenges still to overcome with this approach, there are efficiencies and environmental benefits to be gained and the growth of remote patient care will continue. 

Further development in the use of big data for prevention, diagnosis and precision medicine will also transform clinical and non-clinical care. Collection and reporting of data will happen in many front-line roles within health and social care. Digital skills will be required in many occupations, and increasingly training at all levels is being delivered or supported by virtual environments. 

Health and Social Care

loader graphic