SOCIAL care faces a shortfall of workers growing to almost a million people in 20 years’ time, a charity warned yesterday.

Independent Age (IA) said that, even by the end of this parliament, 200,000 extra care workers would be needed — around twice the vacancy rate of Britain as a whole.

The charity blamed both immigration curbs and a failure to attract British workers to the industry, saying that the figure would grow if efforts were not made to recruit more overseas staff and retain those already working in the sector.