Hundreds of adult social care vacancies across Shropshire

The Department of Health and Social Care released the figure as part of its drive to get new staff into the sector.

Shropshire has an adult social care workforce of about 9,500, while Telford & Wrekin has about 3,900.

The area has a vacancy rate of about five per cent. Across the West Midlands there are 11,500 vacancies.

Caroline Dinenage, Minister for Care, said: "A career in adult social care offers the rewarding opportunity for people in the West Midlands to make a real difference to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in society – a sentiment 96 per cent of current care workers nationally on the ground agree with.

“We have over a million brilliant people working in the sector, but we urgently need new talent to ensure we can continue to provide support for those who need it."

The next phase of the Department’s adult social care recruitment campaign, named 'When you care, every day makes a difference', aims to attract people with the right values to help fill the 122,000 vacancies across the sector in England to support some of the most vulnerable people in society.

According to the Department of Health, 41 per cent of people with dependent children in the West Midlands find it hard to find a job that has flexible enough hours to work around school pickups and drop offs, 39 per cent are unable to arrange childcare so they can get to work on time and 31 per cent struggle to arrange childcare so that they can attend an interview. Meanwhile, 13 per cent of those with children in the West Midlands claim their employer offers no flexibility at all.

The research, conducted by BMG Research, also shows that those with dependents at home often have the right values for these roles.

Nearly half of those with dependent children at home in the West Midlands said they would be willing to change career to a job that allowed them to help or support others, compared to 43 per cent of the general population in the West Midlands. About 30 per cent believe that a job that offers fulfilment would be one of the top traits they would look for in a role and 59 per cent would consider moving roles to a job which offers more fulfilment.