Tackling Workforce Shortages in Scotland's Care Economy
Scotland’s rural and island areas face long-standing and complex challenges in sustaining their care economies. As the ageing population grows, so too does the demand for care services - yet rural and island areas continue to struggle to recruit and retain sufficient care workers, particularly immigrant and migrant workers. Similarly, a shortage of local early childcare facilities limits parents’ employment opportunities, affecting the wider rural and island labour force. Workforce shortages in the care economy therefore threaten not only the delivery of essential services but also the resilience and well-being of these communities.
Alongside the NISRIE project, which aims to enhance understanding of rural and island economies and their future sustainability, a new SRUC-funded PhD project will further contribute to the topic by exploring workforce shortages in the care economy in rural and island areas of Scotland. The research will aim to re-frame discussions about the care economy and rural resilience. Ultimately, it will aim to inform policies which ensure care provision is recognised as central to Scotland’s rural and island economies and their sustainable futures.
The PhD project is situated within wider discourses on ‘care economies’ (Ito Peng, 2019), ‘community economies’ (Gibson-Graham, 2006), also known as ‘community-based economic development’ (Simms et al., 2014) and will aim to provide evidence-based recommendations for policymakers to strengthen workforce sustainability and improve care delivery in rural and island Scotland. It will follow a mixed-methods approach, integrating concepts, methods, and frameworks from various fields, including social work, economics, demography, rural and island sociology, healthcare, early childcare, and long-term care for older adults. The research will also explore the crucial role of immigrant and migrant workers in Scotland’s rural and island social care sectors, examining their motivations, challenges, and lived experiences to identify barriers to their recruitment and retention.
This PhD research is being conducted by Emma Margaret Currie, a researcher with experience in social and public policy, political analysis, and rural affairs. Before joining SRUC, Emma worked at Newsdirect (now DeHavilland), where she specialised in monitoring and analysing developments in rural, environmental, and education policy. She holds an MRes in Public Policy Research and an MA (Hons) in English Language & Linguistics and Social & Public Policy from the University of Glasgow. Her previous research explored the impact of austerity on rural poverty and the “rural premium” in South-West Scotland, and the consequences of centralisation for rural communities.