Younger workers needed to create a National
Care Service: Early lessons from the OSCAR Study
Beth Hardy, Kirsty Haunch, Bronte Heath, John Ratcliffe & Karen Spilsbury
University of Leeds
October 2026
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced that he is committed to creating a National Care Service in the next parliament, eliminating charges to individuals for personal care. However, funding reform alone will not deliver the change. A National Care Service requires the right workforce to deliver care.
As demand for care continues to grow and the workforce ages, an important question needs to be addressed: who will provide care?
The answer must include younger workers. Adult social care faces challenges in attracting, recruiting and retaining younger people. Early findings from the OSCAR study suggest there are no quick fixes, but points to approaches that can help build and sustain the next generation of the care workforce.
Workforce challenges
The adult social care workforce is ageing, with an average age of 44 and more than a quarter of workers aged 55 and over. Attracting and retaining younger workers will be critical to ensure long term sustainability of the sector. Younger workers are not only important for workforce numbers; they also represent the future registered managers, leaders and innovators of care. They bring new perspectives, skills and experiences.
There is a significant opportunity. Thousands of younger people are seeking employment, training or meaningful career pathways. Yet adult social care remains a relatively hidden and poorly understood career option for many. Initiatives to improve careers guidance, work experience and sector-based work programmes hope to address this situation. A recent survey for the BBC highlights that younger people themselves want more support to navigate the world of work. Social care has an opportunity to position itself as a rewarding, skilled and meaningful career choice.
Research on what works in attracting, recruiting and retaining younger people
The Care Work Partnership is undertaking research to better understand organisational factors and strategies that contribute to attracting, recruiting and retaining younger people in adult social care through the OSCAR study. Rather than focusing on why organisations struggle, we wanted to understand what appears to be working. With Skills for Care, we identified organisations that were achieving comparably better recruitment and retention outcomes among younger people and invited them to participate in the study. We spoke with 22 staff with responsibility for workforce development from CEOs to HR professionals, from 19 diverse social care organisations. Although their contexts differed, remarkably consistent themes emerged.
The best recruitment strategy begins long before vacancies are advertised
Many participating organisations felt that younger people often had limited or stereotyped understandings of social care and what a career in the sector can offer. These organisations invested considerable effort in being visible in local communities and building relationships with younger people before recruitment opportunities arose.
Partnerships with local education providers, charities and employment services were viewed as valuable. Organisations described speaking at school assemblies, contributing to careers events and curriculum, providing teaching in their areas of expertise, and offering placements and volunteering opportunities.
Providing opportunities for young people to experience care settings first-hand was seen as especially powerful. These experiences challenged misconceptions about care work and helped young people understand the diversity of roles available, opportunities for progression, and the skills required to work in the sector.
Participants viewed these activities as more than recruitment exercises. They were seen as investments in raising awareness of social care and helping future generations understand its value and contribution to society.
Recruitment is only the start: younger workers need support to belong
Younger people were valued by organisations for having something unique and valuable for their workforce. Alongside this, they recognised that younger people may have little or no experience of care work, or employment.
Participants described taking time to explain the application processes, maintaining communication throughout recruitment and managing expectations about timescales. Once appointed, younger workers were often supported through structured inductions and training, buddying arrangements and mentoring schemes. These approaches were designed to build both confidence and competence.
Many participants emphasised that the first few weeks and months of employment were particularly important. Feeling welcomed, supported and connected to colleagues was seen to help younger workers develop a sense of belonging within the organisation and the wider sector and longer term commitment to care work.
Retention is about development, not simply preventing turnover
Organisations in our study described efforts to create inclusive, psychologically safe workplaces that offered meaningful work and opportunities for development, with the aim of encouraging younger people to remain within the organisation. Flexibility around study commitments, caring responsibilities and work-life balance were viewed as important.
Many organisations adopted a realistic perspective on retention. Some younger people joined social care while studying and would inevitably move into other professions in the future. Rather than viewing this as a retention failure, they often spoke with pride about supporting these individuals and hoped that their experiences in social care would help shape their future careers and contribute to a greater understanding of the sector.
No quick fixes
Perhaps the most important lesson emerging from the OSCAR study is that attracting, recruiting and retaining younger workers cannot be treated as separate challenges.
We didn’t identify a quick fix solution. Rather, our findings suggest that employers who use a combination of approaches achieve comparatively better outcomes in sustaining a younger workforce. They help local younger people see social care as a career; they carefully support them to join the workforce; they create an environment where younger people are welcomed and can develop a sense of belonging, and they provide opportunities for growth and development.
This suggests that workforce policy should move beyond short-term recruitment campaigns alone. Building a sustainable workforce requires investment across the entire employment trajectory and recognition that attraction, recruitment and retention are fundamentally interconnected.
What does this mean for a National Care Service?
The debate about a National Care Service presents a rare opportunity to rethink how we value, support and develop the adult social care workforce.
If a National Care Service is to become a reality, workforce policy must extend beyond discussions of funding, pay and vacancy rates. These issues matter greatly, but they are only part of the picture. Equal attention should be given to how we inspire younger people to consider careers in care, support their transition into work and create workplaces where they can thrive and develop. Research can help identify effective practice and ensure future workforce policies are informed by the experiences of employers and younger workers. The findings presented here are early insights from a wider programme of work.
If you or your organisation is interested in hearing more about this work and being involved with the research, please do get in touch with us: b.r.hardy@leeds.ac.uk or k.haunch@leeds.ac.uk
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