Why Are Good Care Workers Leaving and What Makes Them Stay?

Recruiting more people into adult social care remains essential, but recruitment alone cannot create a stable workforce. Care providers must also understand why skilled employees leave, what encourages them to stay and how working conditions affect the consistency of care people receive.

For many care professionals, the work itself is not the problem. Supporting someone to live with greater dignity, independence and confidence can be enormously rewarding. Difficulties often arise from the conditions surrounding the role, including unpredictable hours, limited progression, insufficient support and the pressure created by persistent staffing gaps.

Pay is understandably central to the conversation, but the evidence shows that retention is influenced by a much wider combination of factors. Guaranteed hours, meaningful training, relevant qualifications, supportive leadership and a clear sense of professional progression can all affect whether a good care worker chooses to build a career with an organisation.

The Retention Challenge in East Sussex

The latest local workforce data estimates that East Sussex had an adult social care staff turnover rate of 26.7%. This was higher than both the South East and England averages recorded within the same dataset.

This does not mean that every worker leaving a position is lost to social care. Approximately 62% of people starting adult social care jobs in East Sussex were recruited from elsewhere within the sector. Their knowledge and experience therefore remained in care, but individual employers still faced the time and cost of recruiting, checking, inducting and training replacement staff.

Local figures relate principally to 2024/25. Source: Skills for Care East Sussex workforce summary.

A high turnover rate can create a cycle that becomes increasingly difficult to break. Employees leave, rotas become harder to cover and remaining team members take on additional pressure. That pressure may then contribute to further absence, fatigue and resignations.

Breaking this cycle requires more than repeatedly advertising vacancies. It requires providers to examine the quality, security and long-term value of the roles they offer.

Why Do Care Workers Leave?

People rarely leave a job for one reason alone. A worker may enjoy caring for people but struggle with an unpredictable rota. Another may feel supported by colleagues but see no clear opportunity to progress. A small concern can become a much larger problem when combined with fatigue, financial pressure or feeling undervalued.

Some turnover will always be unavoidable. People relocate, retire, change careers or experience changes in their family circumstances. The more important question is how much preventable turnover can be reduced by improving the employment experience.

Pay Matters, but Pay Is Not the Whole Answer

Care workers perform skilled and responsible roles. They support people with personal care, medication, communication, mobility, emotional wellbeing and complex conditions. They may also identify subtle changes that indicate a person’s health or support needs are changing.

Pay must reflect that responsibility. However, two jobs offering a similar hourly rate can provide very different experiences. One may offer secure hours, a supportive manager and funded development. Another may provide an uncertain rota, limited communication and few opportunities to progress.

This is why retention should be considered through the wider idea of role quality. A good role provides sufficient reward, but it also offers security, respect, manageable expectations and the chance to develop.

Skills for Care has identified five employment factors associated with lower turnover among care workers:

When none of these five factors was present, the reported turnover rate was 42.2%. When all five were present, turnover fell to 14.4%. Workers without these positive employment factors were therefore almost three times as likely to leave.

Source: Skills for Care, State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England 2025.

The First Year Is Critical

Care workers are particularly likely to leave during the early stages of employment. National workforce analysis found that workers with less than one year of experience in their current role had a turnover rate of 34%, compared with 15.3% among those with at least 20 years in the role.

This highlights the importance of recruitment, induction and early support. The first few weeks shape how a new employee views the organisation. If the reality of the role differs significantly from what was described during recruitment, trust can quickly be lost.

A strong induction should explain responsibilities clearly, provide appropriate shadowing and training, and give new workers someone they can approach with questions. Regular contact during the first three, six and twelve months can identify concerns before they become reasons to leave.

Security and Predictability Matter

Flexibility can be attractive to care professionals, particularly those balancing family responsibilities, education or another role. However, flexibility is not the same as insecurity.

Workers need enough information and notice to organise their lives. Constant last-minute rota changes, uncertain weekly income or pressure to accept additional shifts can make an otherwise rewarding position difficult to sustain.

National figures show that care workers on zero-hours contracts had a turnover rate of 30.6%, compared with 22.9% among those contracted for 35 hours or more.

Employers may not be able to offer every worker a full-time position, and not every worker wants one. The objective should be to create arrangements that are honest, fair and as predictable as possible.

Distance Can Affect Retention Too

Travel is particularly relevant in a county such as East Sussex, where care may be provided across coastal towns, rural communities and locations with limited public transport.

Skills for Care found that independent-sector care workers travelling more than 15 kilometres to work had a turnover rate of 25.5%. This compared with 21.1% among those travelling less than one kilometre.

The difference may appear relatively small, but it becomes significant across a large workforce. Longer journeys increase travel costs, reduce personal time and make early, late or split shifts more difficult to manage.

Recruiting locally and matching workers with suitable nearby opportunities can therefore support both reliability and retention. For providers, it can reduce the risk of shifts being affected by difficult journeys. For workers, it can make a career in care more practical over the long term.

Training Shows That a Worker Has a Future

Training is essential for safety and quality, but it also communicates something important to the employee: the organisation is prepared to invest in them.

Care professionals frequently develop expertise in areas such as dementia, autism, learning disabilities, mental health, neurological conditions, medication support and end-of-life care. These are valuable skills that deserve to be recognised and developed.

When training is treated only as a compliance exercise, it can feel disconnected from career progression. When it is connected to greater responsibility and visible opportunities, it can help transform a job into a profession.

The national Care Workforce Pathway is designed to support this change by setting out the knowledge, skills, values and behaviours required across adult social care roles. Its expansion includes a wider range of specialist, practitioner, coordination and leadership positions.

Recognition Must Be More Than an Annual Award

Recognition does not always need to involve a major financial reward. It can begin with listening to staff, thanking them for handling a difficult situation well and acknowledging the skill involved in providing compassionate support.

Care workers often notice details that others do not. They recognise changes in mood, appetite, mobility, communication and behaviour. Their observations can protect wellbeing and help services respond before a concern becomes more serious.

When this contribution is consistently overlooked, employees can begin to feel interchangeable. When it is respected, they are more likely to feel that they are a valued part of a professional team.

Recognition should therefore be built into everyday leadership. Supervisions, team meetings, feedback from families and opportunities to contribute ideas can all help people see that their work has influence and meaning.

Supportive Management Protects the Whole Team

Managers influence how policies and organisational values are experienced in practice. A well-written wellbeing policy cannot compensate for a culture in which employees feel unable to raise concerns or request support.

Good management does not remove every pressure from care work. It creates an environment in which pressure can be discussed and managed. This includes realistic workloads, regular supervision, clear communication and a willingness to respond when employees say they are struggling.

Managers also need support. Registered managers frequently balance regulatory responsibilities, staffing, safeguarding, quality assurance and the needs of people receiving care. When a service is understaffed, managers can become part of the rota themselves, leaving less time for leadership and workforce development.

Reliable staffing support can therefore benefit more than the shift being covered. It can give permanent teams room to recover and allow managers to concentrate on the responsibilities that keep a service safe, effective and well led.

A Fairer Future for Care Work?

In July 2026, the government announced the next stage of England’s first adult social care Fair Pay Agreement. A new negotiating body will bring employer and trade union representatives together to negotiate pay, terms, conditions and wider employment matters.

The first negotiations are expected to begin in April 2027, with the first settlement planned for April 2028. The agreement is backed by £500 million in government funding for 2028/29.

This is a significant development, but it will not replace the need for individual organisations to build supportive workplaces now. Pay reform, career pathways and better employment standards must ultimately be reflected in the day-to-day experience of care professionals.

For care workers, the real test will be whether they feel more secure, more respected and better able to see a future in the sector.

What Makes Great Care Workers Stay?

There is no single solution to staff retention. Higher pay matters, but so do predictable hours, reasonable travel, relevant training, professional recognition and supportive leadership.

The strongest organisations create an employment experience in which these factors reinforce one another. They recruit people whose values and experience suit the role, support them during the critical first year and provide reasons to continue developing.

For East Sussex, this is especially important. The county must prepare for increased demand while retaining the knowledge of its existing workforce. Continually replacing experienced people will not be enough. Providers must create roles in which good care professionals can thrive.

Data note: East Sussex workforce estimates relate principally to 2024/25. National turnover findings are drawn from Skills for Care’s 2025 adult social care workforce reporting. Policy information concerning the Fair Pay Agreement and Care Workforce Pathway was current in July 2026.