Unpaid carers leaving work are a staffing risk for care providers, Care England warns

Care providers employ carers too

Care England has turned a report about families into a warning about its own members' rotas. In commentary published on 15 October 2026 (opens in a new tab), the body for independent social care providers in England argued that because providers are employers, Carers UK's findings are a workforce and capacity issue for the sector as well as a family one.

That lands on a sector that already struggles to recruit staff and to stop them leaving. The people Carers UK describes are cutting hours, changing jobs and saying no to training, and some of them work in care.

The scale is large. 1.1 million people left work in the last two years alone to provide unpaid care (opens in a new tab), about 1,500 people a day, according to Carers UK. We covered those figures when they first came out, in our earlier report on carers giving up work.

One worker in five now juggles a job and care

Carers UK published its report, 'Balancing Work and Unpaid Care: A Critical Issue', on 16 September 2026, based on polling by Opinium. According to Care England's account of the findings (opens in a new tab), one in five UK workers, an estimated 6.7 million people, now combine paid work with unpaid caring, up from 15% of workers in 2019.

Over time the toll adds up: Care England reports from the same polling that 3.3 million people have left work at some point to care, and 4.1 million have cut their hours.

The losses show up as missed training and stalled careers

For a care employer, the figures that bite are the smaller ones. Among people in work with current or previous caring experience, Care England cites Carers UK figures that 13% have declined training and 12% have turned down a promotion (opens in a new tab) because of caring.

Others have moved down or moved on, according to the same Care England figures: 13% took a lower-paid or more junior role and 12% changed employer. Some have also cut their pension contributions.

A registered manager sees this as the senior carer post nobody applies for, or the course a good worker keeps putting off. Where your staff match the national picture, some of that may be caring at home, not lack of interest.

The survey does not count care workers

Neither Carers UK's polling nor Care England's commentary shows how many of the people who left work, cut hours or changed jobs were working in social care. The direct hit to the care workforce is Care England's argument, not a measured finding.

The argument still holds up. Care providers recruit from the same labour market as everyone else, and the pressures the survey describes do not stop at the care home door.

Most people back flexible working and a supportive manager

Care England points to strong public support for employers to act. In the Carers UK polling cited by Care England, 79% back flexible working and 79% value a supportive line manager (opens in a new tab).

Care England also reports 73% support for a statutory right to paid Carer's Leave. Most people also want more flexible leave when caring gets heavier, and want employers to help staff find information and advice.

Several of these sit within a provider's own control: how rotas are built, and how line managers respond when a worker's caring load changes. No figures show how many care providers already offer them, so nobody yet knows how far the sector is from what Care England is asking for.

When family care runs out, the demand comes to providers

Families are already stretched. Care England cites Carers UK figures that 23% of people with caring experience report higher household costs, and 23% have used savings (opens in a new tab) to manage the cost of caring.

If savings, debt and reduced hours stop working, unpaid care could collapse into more demand for formal care and the NHS. That pressure lands on a sector already short of staff, as our report on the projected shortfall of unpaid carers also explored.

The same person can be the care worker on the rota and the relative whose savings are running out. Which of those two jobs gives way first?