Care England estimates that replacing a care worker that leaves your care business costs £6,000. With turnover rates for frontline staff in domiciliary care currently at 29.3%, according to Skills for Care, that’s an eye-watering amount.

Let’s break that down a bit:

• Number of care workers you employ = 10
• Staff turnover rate = 29%
• Number of care workers leaving each year = 3
• Cost to replace those care workers = £18,000

It’s a lot right? It’s more or less one care worker’s salary spent on replacing the three that have left.

In the current climate for care, retaining care workers is even more important than ever. Tight budgets are being squeezed further by things like the National Insurance rate increases. While the government’s recent decision to stop adult social care providers hiring staff from abroad has put mounting pressure on an already scarce workforce. 

But care providers that are tackling carer retention are succeeding. We’re lucky to have care providers in the Nursebuddy kylä (community) with turnover rates as low as 9%. And their businesses are growing as a result. So what can we learn from them?

Why retaining staff can be difficult

Let’s start by looking at some of the reasons why care workers leave their employers. 

Workforce benchmarking by Skills for Care identifies a host of factors which predicate high staff turnover – and which have a multiplier effect on turnover rates. They are:

• Age – the turnover rate is usually highest amongst care workers aged below 25 (45% on average), with turnover decreasing as age increases.
• Tenure – turnover is much higher within the first year of a new caring role, at any stage of a care worker’s career (39%)
• Experience – turnover rate decreases the longer someone works in care. It’s 41% within the first year in care, dropping to 20% when someone has worked in care for more than a decade.
• Pay – being paid above the National Living Wage (above £11 at the time of this research) decreases turnover by around 7%
• Conditions – turnover rate is highest for care workers on zero hour contracts (36%)
• Training – turnover is noticeably lower for care workers receiving some form of training in the last year (28%), compared to those who had not (35%)
• Distance – the turnover rate increases with distance from work (for example, turnover is 32% if a care worker travels 20km or more from home to a visit, compared with 26% if travelling less than 1km)

In addition, The Care Workers’ Charity’s Wellbeing Report 2025 found that among the most common reasons cited for leaving a job were:

• Pay (65%)
• Impact on health and wellbeing (61%)
• Working conditions (39%)
• Lack of learning and development opportunities (37%)

As the data shows, it’s a complex mix of factors that causes care businesses to have high staff turnover rates. And some seem easier to solve than others.

What are care providers with high retention rates doing right?

But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are common traits amongst successful care providers which lead to them enjoying high rates of care worker retention.

1. Creating opportunities for learning and development 🎓

Nursebuddy’s 2025 Carer Wellbeing Survey found that some of the happiest days at work are when a care worker has an opportunity to learn from others or put something into practice.

“The carer I was with today was amazing. Got me to do a lot of the tasks so I feel much more confident now.”

Twice CQC Outstanding-rated homecare provider Caroline Cares for You makes sure that all care workers have an annual performance review with a personal development plan attached to it. However, recognising that not everyone wants to keep moving up into senior roles, they have created a network of champions for things like activities, events and sustainability initiatives. It’s a different way of promoting or rewarding people, but just as valued.

2. Celebrating achievements and showing appreciation 🙌

A thank you goes a long way. Whether it’s a hand-written note, a birthday bouquet or a phone call from the boss, letting care workers know they are valued and appreciated builds engagement and loyalty.

Nursebuddy has an in-app positive messaging centre that homecare providers can use to send virtual high fives for a job well done, or an e-card to mark something important to their care workers.

“We usually send paper thank yous – the team are loving the instant recognition.”

3. Providing stability 💸

Lapis Care and Caroline Cares for You are just two examples of domiciliary care providers who salary their staff, and don’t pay per visit. This gives care workers stability and an important sense of security. It also means care workers are not hanging around waiting to be paid, which is a big source of frustration.

Irish homecare provider Care for Me makes sure they share schedules well in advance via Nursebuddy, so that care workers can develop a routine and plan their own lives much more easily.

4. Monitoring wellbeing and happiness 💚

Cynefin Care in Wales uses Nursebuddy’s end-of-day survey to monitor how its care team is feeling over time. They monitor happiness ratings to quickly spot changes in their team’s morale and job satisfaction. They also learn from anonymous feedback shared via the survey, reviewing it at operational meetings and feeding back to the team what’s been done about it via their staff newsletter, ‘The Listener’.

5. Supporting the whole person 🙏

Lastly, Cynefin Care is an advocate for supporting the whole person at work and caring for the people that work for them, as much as the clients they care for. For example, they recently found a charity that could support a handful of their care workers who needed it with free sanitary products.

They empower their care workers to take control of their employment and actively bring to their managers what they want and need. One brilliant way they do this is by asking new recruits “how did your last employer fail you”, which gives them a really good idea of what that person is going to need to help them stick around.