Objective: Little is known about the social care workforce supporting people with dementia in England. This article seeks to compare the characteristics of people employed in the social care sector supporting people with dementia with other members of the social care workforce.
Methods: This article reports on the secondary analysis of a new national workforce dataset from England covering social care employees. Secondary analysis of this dataset was undertaken using 457,031 unique workers’ records.
Results: There are some important differences between the dementia care workforce and other parts of the social care workforce in respect of the dementia care workforce being more likely to be female, to work part-time, to be employed by agencies and to be less qualified. Many work for medium-sized care businesses and in people’s own homes. The findings are set in the context of efforts to increase training and skills.
Conclusion: Knowledge of the social care workforce is relevant to care quality and should be borne in mind when planning interventions and commissioning services.
Hussein, S. and Manthorpe, J. (2012) The dementia social care workforce in England: secondary analysis of a national workforce data set. Aging and Mental Health, 16(1): 110-118.
Founder and Director
Shereen Hussein is a Health and Social Care Policy professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), United Kingdom.
Shereen Founded the MENARAH Network in 2019, through an initial grant from the Global Challenge Research Fund, UKRI. She is a medical demographer with expertise in ageing, family dynamics, migration and long-term care systems. Shereen regularly collaborates with the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank in policy and research focused on ageing in the Middle East and North Africa Region.
Shereen received her undergraduate degree in statistics and a postgraduate degree in computer science at Cairo University. She completed an MSc in medical demography at the London School of Hygiene and a PhD in quantitative demography and population studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom.
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