Guys on film: Lack of men working in social care prompts camera confessions

A publicity drive to recruit more men into the care sector will see men from the industry sharing personal stories on camera about their working life in social care.

Led by the National Care Forum (NCF) and Care England, the footage is being promoted via social media to encourage men to consider a career in care.

The call for more men to be recruited in the sector is intended to help plug a predicted shortfall of 718,000 care workers in England by 2025, as described in a 2014 report by the International Longevity Centre-UK and Anchor.

As an increasing number of men are living longer, those in the sector recognise more men could be employed in the future to assist in meeting their personal care.

Des Kelly, the executive director of NCF, which is backing the campaign alongside Skills for Care stated in his blog: “Government statistics show 84 per cent of carers across the sector in England are women and just 16 per cent are men – apparently this figure has remained static since 2012.

"Interestingly however Carers UK estimate that the proportion of informal carers that are male is 42.3 per cent, which highlights that many men are in fact already involved in providing care and support.

“In my view the care sector is best served by a workforce that truly reflects the people it seeks to support. Therefore it needs to be diverse with women and men, different ages, a broad ethnic mix and so on. Most of all we need people who have the right values and attitudes to ensure that, whatever the setting, people receiving care and support are treated as individuals with dignity and respect and that the services are properly personalised to meet their needs."

To tackle the worker shortfall, the NCF director also stressed the need for schools and recruitment agencies to have 'a good understanding' of the career development opportunities that exists within social care.

"Surely we should be emphasising the stability and opportunity of a position working in care along with the potential to progress?"