Every year Skills for Care publishes the most detailed picture we have of the adult social care workforce in England. This year’s report, The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England 2026, runs to more than 200 pages. We have read it from cover to cover, and one theme kept coming back to us. Almost every finding that matters to a provider leads back to the people running the service.

First, the good news

There is real progress in the numbers. The vacancy rate has fallen from a peak of 10.4% in 2021/22 to 6.2%. Turnover among care workers and support workers is at its lowest point in the reporting period. Filled posts grew by 22,000 to 1.59 million. For a sector that has been under pressure for years, that deserves recognition.

The role that stands out

One role is moving in the opposite direction. Registered managers are now the hardest role to fill in adult social care. They have the highest vacancy rate of any role in the sector, at 10.2%, with around 3,100 posts unfilled. Turnover among registered managers is 19.7%.

Look further and the picture becomes more urgent:

• 31% of registered managers are aged 55 or over. That is a generation of experienced leaders whose knowledge is worth passing on before they retire.
• A quarter (24%) are qualified below Level 5, and 11% hold no relevant social care qualification.
• One in five deputy managers (20%) holds no relevant qualification, and deputies are the natural next generation of registered managers.
• Only 18% of managers have leadership and management training recorded, and 15% have supervision training recorded.

Why managers matter so much

The report does not just count managers. It links them to the outcomes every provider cares about.

Services with a registered manager who has been in post for less than a year have care worker turnover of 28.3%. Where the manager has 20 years or more in the role, it is 20.6%. And services with the best Care Quality Commission ratings have registered managers who have been in post for an average of nearly 10 years.

Skills for Care is careful to say these are links, not proof of cause, and we agree. But the pattern is consistent: where leadership is stable and experienced, staff stay longer and quality is higher.

Managers make everything else happen

This is the part we think gets missed. Many of the report’s other findings describe things that only happen when a manager makes them happen.

• Care workers with training recorded had 0% turnover, against 31.5% for those with none.
• Care workers with five positive factors in place, including training, a relevant qualification and guaranteed hours, had 3% turnover, against 34.3% with none.
• The best-rated services had more care workers engaged with the Care Certificate (82%) than the lowest rated (72%).
• Care worker turnover in the first year in a role is 33.7%, so the quality of induction and early support really counts.

Who decides whether staff are trained, inducted well, supervised and given somewhere to progress? The manager. Leadership is not one issue among many. It is the lever that moves the rest.