King's College London

With colleagues from various European universities, Ian Kessler has just published an extended editorial for a special issue of the journal Human Resource Management, on workforce management in social care.

The editorial reflects on the six articles presented in the special issue. These cover such issues as: the workplace violence and harassment faced by social care workers; the development of workplace practices to support the ‘strength based’ approach to social work; and the establishment of a distinctive approach to recruitment designed to secure workers with the capabilities to deliver person-centred care.

The editorial also reviews the literature on the management of the social care workforce. This literature is mainly drawn from the field of human resources, but also touches on a wider range of material, including Unit studies, for example, on personal assistants and care home ancillary workers. The literature review distinguishes between studies centred on the social care system at the macro-level, the service provider organisation at the meso-level and the actors with a stake in the workforce arrangements, in particular care workers themselves and the service users, at the micro level. Indeed, the editorial presents an analytical model, arguing that structure-agency interaction at and between these three levels helps explain the development, application and impact of workforce management policies and practices in social care. It is a model which generates many research questions outlined in the editorial as the basis for future research.

Ian is Professor of Public Policy and Management at King's Business School and a member of the Senior Management Team at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce at King's.

This publication

Kessler, I., A. M. McDermott, L. Vermeerbergen, V. Pulignano, and B. Harney. (2025) 'Sustainable Work and Employment in Social Care: New Challenges, New Priorities', Human Resource Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.70044