Marketing campaigns to boost the social care workforce in Scotland have been largely unsuccessful in convincing the public a job in care is rewarding or for caring people, according to government evaluations of the scheme.

The ‘There’s More to Care than Caring’ campaign was first launched in January 2020 to promote adult social care as a meaningful, valued and rewarding career.

Running across a range of digital, outdoor and radio channels, and supported by a campaign website, the Scottish government’s campaign sought to alleviate recruitment challenges faced by the sector across Scotland.

However, evaluations of the first three waves of the campaign, released to healthandcare.scot under Freedom of Information, show limited success in changing negative perceptions of the career.

An evaluation of phase one of the campaign, which came to an end as the pandemic began in March 2020, concluded the campaign did not start to change perceptions of adult social care, but that ‘this is unlikely to be easy in the current environment’.

All three phases of the campaign were successful in raising awareness and increasing the likelihood of people taking steps to begin a career in adult social care.

However, the campaign was found to attract ‘the lower hanging fruit’ and mainly “nudged” people already considering a social care career, according to the phase 2 evaluation carried out a year later.

The most recently evaluated phase of the campaign in late 2021 was more successful, boosting the number of people reporting a positive opinion towards a social care career to 61% compared to 54% before – although still not quite hitting the target set by government for 65%.

The newest iteration of the ‘There’s More to Care than Caring’ was launched in January 2023 with £500,000 backing.

The Scottish government says it will focus on career opportunities in the sector and the rewards of working within care.

Former Minister for Social Care Kevin Stewart said:

“This campaign highlights that while relevant experience can help, it is core interpersonal skills such as communication, compassion, empathy and respect that are most highly valued. If these are skills you possess then adult social care could be the career for you.”

At the launch of a new policy prospectus for the next three years, Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf committed to increasing the minimum wage for social care staff to £12 an hour – though not “absolutely immediately”.

Research published by the Scottish Women’s Budget Group suggests that doubling annual investment in social care would allow workers to be paid a ‘fairer’ £15.21 an hour while directly creating more than 40,000 new care worker roles.

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