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Operators and agencies

Planning staff recruitment

How hard will it be to recruit here, and who are we competing with for staff?

Register for early access All 153 councils · Ask Orrery · every guide

Look at the number of employers competing for care workers and the rates councils pay, which set what employers can pay.

When people use it: When setting pay rates each spring and before a recruitment drive.

In the platform

How it works, step by step

  1. Competing employers

    More agencies and homes means more competition for the same care workers.

  2. What the council pays

    Low council rates hold down pay across the local market.

  3. Where the employers are

    Map every service near your home: the employers your staff could move to.

What you see

The views you will use

Orrery platform: Competing employers, Kent example
Competing employers (Kent example)
Orrery platform: What the council pays, Kent example
What the council pays (Kent example)
Orrery platform: Where the employers are, Kent example
Where the employers are (Kent example)
Ask Orrery

Ask the data in plain English

A real question and answer from Ask Orrery, the assistant inside the platform, for a care home owner in Kent (October 2026). It answers only from Orrery's data and the subscriber's own documents, and shows its sources.

How competitive is the market for care staff in Kent?

Kent is a crowded market for care staff, though local vacancy and turnover figures are slightly better than England's.

  • Employers: Kent has 487 care homes (rank 1 of 153) and 442 community services, mostly home care agencies (rank 2). The England median is 66 homes and 77 services (CQC care directory, 1 October 2026). Every one of them is a place your staff could move to.
  • Vacancies and turnover: The vacancy rate is 6.2%, against 6.8% for England. Staff turnover is 22.6%, against 23.7% (Skills for Care, in the Orrery Kent report).
  • Pay: Care workers earn £12.13 an hour, against £12.18 for England (March 2025). The National Living Wage rose to £12.71 in April 2026, so pay has to rise.
  • Overseas recruitment: The care worker visa closed to new overseas applicants on 22 July 2025. Non EU nationals make up 29% of Kent's workforce, so homes now compete harder for local staff.

This is not financial or HR advice.

Reading it well
Related scenarios
Annual budget and business planHome care agency choosing where to expand

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