Most home care agencies know the cost of a carer leaving: shifts handed back, overtime for everyone else, clients meeting yet another new face, and the whole recruitment process starting again. Skills for Care's 2026 workforce data shows how common that is in domiciliary care, and, more usefully, which conditions are linked with carers staying.
This guide sets out the numbers, then turns them into retention and employee engagement ideas that fit a home care agency in England. If you are still at the hiring stage, start with how to recruit care workers in the UK. Retention starts there.
What the 2026 data says about domiciliary care
Skills for Care published The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England 2026 on 14 October 2026, with a separate summary of domiciliary care services. For CQC-regulated non-residential services (domiciliary care, supported living and extra care housing) in 2025/26, it reports:
- a turnover rate of 23.5%, an estimated 124,000 workers leaving their role in the previous 12 months
- a higher turnover rate for care workers, at 28.6% (93,000 leavers)
- a vacancy rate of 9.0%, down from a peak of 12.8% in 2021/22
- 44% of care workers on zero-hours contracts, against 34% of the whole non-residential workforce
- 48% of the workforce recruited from within adult social care, so many leavers move between employers rather than leaving the sector
That last point matters. A large share of the carers you lose go to another care provider. The question is not only "how do we keep people in care?" but "why would they choose to stay with us?"
What is linked with carers leaving
Section 9 of the full report follows care workers in the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) from March 2025 to March 2026 and looks at who left. Skills for Care is clear that these are associations, not proven causes. They are still the best national evidence available on what to look at first.
| Factor | Higher turnover | Lower turnover |
|---|---|---|
| Time in role | Less than 1 year: 33.7% | 20 years or more: 12.6% |
| Contract | Zero-hours: 29.8% | More than 35 contracted hours: 19.1% |
| Zero-hours in domiciliary care | Zero-hours: 29.5% | Not zero-hours: 22.1% |
| Pay against local average | More than 10% below: 27.4% | On or above: 22.9% |
| Training recorded | None: 31.5% | Some training: 23.0% |
| Relevant qualification | None: 24.4% | Holds one: 19.4% |
| Sick pay | Statutory Sick Pay only: 24.3% | More than Statutory Sick Pay: 21.6% |
| Registered manager's time in post | Less than 1 year: 28.3% | 20 years or more: 20.6% |
| Age | Under 25: 35.5% | 50 to 59: 18.4% |
The most striking finding is the combined one. Skills for Care scored five positive factors: pay on or above the local authority average, not being on a zero-hours contract, receiving training, holding a relevant qualification and working full-time. Care workers with all five had a turnover rate of 15.3%. Those with none had 34.3%. No single fix did that on its own.
The report also found that distance from home to workplace was linked with turnover, but that analysis covered residential services only, because it could not measure travel between visits in domiciliary care. Treat it as a prompt to look at your own runs, not as a domiciliary care figure.
Retention ideas that actually work
Each idea below is tied to something in the Skills for Care data or guidance. None of them is a quick trick.
1. Treat the first year as the danger zone
A third of care workers in their first year left. That makes induction and early support the single most obvious place to act.
- Pair every new carer with a named buddy for their first shifts and first difficult call.
- Plan shadow visits before solo visits, and do not shorten them because the rota is tight.
- Book check-ins at the end of week one, month one and month three, and write them down.
- Use the Skills for Care induction toolkit, which is structured around day one, week one, month one and months three to six.
- Make sure the Care Certificate and mandatory training are timed to the work, not dumped on day one.
Our safer recruitment guide covers why competence must be checked before unsupervised visits. Done well, that same process is also good retention: new carers are not left alone before they feel ready.
2. Offer guaranteed hours to the people who want them
Zero-hours contracts suit some carers. Skills for Care's data suggests many others would prefer more security: turnover was 29.8% on zero-hours contracts and 19.1% for carers contracted for more than 35 hours. In domiciliary care specifically it was 29.5% against 22.1%.
Ask each carer what they want, offer contracted hours where the work supports it, and review it when your client base changes. Do not assume the contract you used five years ago still fits.
3. Know where your pay sits locally
Carers paid on or above their local authority area average were less likely to leave than those paid more than 10% below it. You may not be able to lead your local market, but you should know where you stand. Check your rates against Skills for Care's local area data and make sure travel time is handled lawfully - our national minimum wage and travel time guide explains the rules.
4. Train, qualify and show a path forward
Care workers with training recorded had a turnover rate of 23.0%, against 31.5% for those with none. Those with a relevant social care qualification had 19.4%, against 24.4% without. Skills for Care notes that people who already want a career in care may be more likely to gain qualifications, so this is not purely cause and effect. It still points the same way: people who can see a future with you are more likely to stay.
Use the Care Workforce Pathway to describe what progression looks like at your agency, from new care worker to senior or specialist roles.
5. Look at sick pay
Workplaces that paid care workers more than Statutory Sick Pay had a turnover rate of 21.6%, against 24.3% where they did not. Whether you can afford enhanced sick pay depends on your contracts and margins. It is worth costing properly before you dismiss it, because replacing a carer is expensive too.
6. Make rotas fair, predictable and explained
Skills for Care's guidance on staff wellbeing, rewards and recognition says that when shifts are inconsistent or income is uncertain, staff are more likely to feel dissatisfied and consider leaving. It recommends consistent rotas where possible, flexibility for caring responsibilities, and applying rotas, workloads, pay and overtime consistently, with decisions communicated clearly.
In home care that means:
- publishing rotas as early as you can, and keeping late changes to a minimum
- sharing weekend and bank holiday work fairly, and being able to show that you did
- building runs that are realistic, with travel time that matches the roads, not a straight line on a map
- telling carers why a change was made, not only that it was made
Our guide on how to build a home care rota goes into rota design in more detail.
7. Make supervision about the person as well as the paperwork
CQC Regulation 18 requires staff to receive the support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal they need. Skills for Care recommends building wellbeing and recognition conversations into supervision and team meetings. Supervision is one of the few planned times a lone-working carer gets a manager's full attention. Use it to ask how they are, what is getting in the way, and what they want to learn next. See our supervision and appraisal guide.
8. Recognise people every week, not once a year
Skills for Care says that while pay is important, everyday actions that show staff they are valued can make a real difference in helping people choose to stay. It suggests a mix of informal and structured recognition, including milestones and shared feedback.
Practical examples that cost little:
- pass on compliments from clients and families to the carer by name, the same day
- mark six-month and one-year anniversaries, given how many people leave in year one
- thank carers who cover short-notice calls, and make sure the same people are not always asked
9. Involve carers in decisions
The 2026 report recalls Skills for Care's 2017 "Secrets of success" research with employers whose turnover was below 10%. Those employers pointed to investing in learning and development (94%), embedding their values (92%), celebrating achievements (86%) and involving colleagues in decision-making (81%).
For a home care agency, involvement can be simple: a short staff survey before a rota or policy change, a carer representative at team meetings, or asking carers how a new client's visits should be planned. Employee engagement is mostly whether people feel listened to, and whether anything changes when they speak.
10. Keep leadership stable
Care worker turnover was 28.3% where the registered manager had been in post for less than a year, and 20.6% where they had 20 years or more. Supporting and keeping your registered manager and senior team is a retention strategy for everyone below them.
11. Recruit to retain
Skills for Care's Building a workforce that stays guidance says people rarely leave or stay for one reason, and that a whole-organisation approach is more likely to last than one-off initiatives. Recruitment is part of that whole. Values-based recruitment, an honest job description and a clear picture of the work help you hire people who know what they are signing up for.
The 2026 report also found that recently recruited domestic care workers had a turnover rate of 38.2%, against 21.6% for international recruits. Skills for Care notes that some international recruits' visas are tied to their employer, so this is not a like-for-like comparison. It does show how fragile early tenure is for new domestic hires.
Measure your own retention
National figures are a benchmark, not your agency. Track a few numbers of your own, every month:
- overall turnover and care worker turnover
- leavers in their first 3, 6 and 12 months
- the reasons people give when they leave, ideally from a short exit conversation
- sickness absence, which Skills for Care also links with leaving
Keeping your records up to date in the ASC-WDS feeds the national data, and lets you compare your figures with Skills for Care's recruitment and retention tracker, which is updated monthly.
If your first-year leaver numbers are high, look first at how people were recruited and inducted. Our guides to the care worker recruitment checklist and applicant tracking cover the steps before day one.
How HomecareOS helps
HomecareOS does not claim to fix retention for you. Pay, hours, training and leadership are decisions only you can make. What it does help with is the recruitment process, where a good first experience starts:
- You invite an applicant by email. SMS invites are not built.
- The applicant completes an online /apply portal with their application, documents, right to work, two references, DBS details and a health questionnaire.
- You track each applicant through seven stages: application, documents, references, DBS, interview, offer and onboarding.
- On hire, the applicant converts into a carer record that is ready to be added to the rota. They are not added to the rota automatically, so you stay in control of how and when a new carer starts.
Agencies that sign up now get the recruitment portal £49 a month plus VAT. See the recruitment portal offer, the recruitment feature page, or book a 15-minute demo. You can also call Phil on 01905 674704.
Sources
- The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England 2026, Skills for Care, published 14 October 2026, and the full report (PDF), Section 3.1.3 (retention resources and "Secrets of success") and Section 9.1 (factors affecting turnover).
- Domiciliary care services in the adult social care sector 2025/26, Skills for Care (turnover, vacancy, zero-hours and recruitment-source figures for CQC non-residential services).
- Factors affecting turnover, Skills for Care interactive analysis of Section 9.
- Recruitment and retention monthly tracker, Skills for Care.
- Building a workforce that stays and Staff wellbeing, rewards and recognition, Skills for Care retention guidance.
- Induction toolkit and Care Workforce Pathway: supporting recruitment and retention, Skills for Care.
- Regulation 18: Staffing, CQC.
- HomecareOS recruitment and the recruitment portal landing page, for what the product does today.