What Work – Suffolk 2015 / 2016
HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE
A job in the health and social care sector can be extremely rewarding and despite some recent
job losses in the public sector, there are many skill shortages. Many roles focus on care, others
are based in labs but there are also support roles in admin, security and maintenance which are
essential to the day-to-day running of the service. Some services come under the private sector
as well as the public with the voluntary sector also playing a large role.
What is happening?
Skills & qualities
• Health and social care is a large employment
sector in Suffolk and the largest in the UK.
• The number of people working in private health
rather than the NHS is growing.
• The future? New technologies will have a
huge impact on healthcare including patient
monitoring, diagnostics, robotics and bioscience.
These are creating new job areas, for example in
telehealth.
Useful subjects
• More work in and around the community.
• Nurses are constantly in demand and there are
also skill shortages for midwives, care assistants,
social workers, orthoptists, bioscientists and
radiographers.
Pharmacist
£41,500
• An ageing population means a shortage of
people to help care for older people.
Midwife
£35,700
Dental nurse
£17,500
Social worker
£32,300
Care home assistant
£15,800
Residential home manager
£30,500
Doctor
£71,100
Medical secretary
£21,400
• Adult social care workforce must grow by
80% by 20251.
Local employers
• NHS including local hospitals such as West
Suffolk Hospital and many health centres
• Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
• Health East
• Suffolk County
Council
6
What could you earn?*
• Demand for people with Level 3 qualifications
and above.
• Suffolk Community
Healthcare
• Various care homes
On the web
www.nmas.ac.uk
www.stepintothenhs.nhs.uk
www.nhscareers.nhs.uk
www.skillsforcare.org.uk
www.skillsforcareanddevelopment.org.uk
1 Skills for Care * Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2014. Average full-time (median) salary rounded to nearest £100.
Doesn’t include self employed.