Free carer recruitment cost calculator
Work out what every leaver really costs your service, what turnover costs you per year, and what better retention would put back in your budget.
- ✓ Free
- ✓ No sign-up
- ✓ Takes 1 minute
- ✓ Nothing saved or sent
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Step 1 of 2: Your team
Tell us about your team
The sector average turnover was 23.1% in 2024/25 (Skills for Care). Use your own rate if you know it.
Care staff only – the roles you recruit for most often.
Sector average: 23.1%. New starters leave at 43.5% in their first year (Skills for Care 2025).
Used to cost paid induction and shadowing time. NLW is £12.71 from April 2026.
Helpful check: turnover = leavers in the last 12 months ÷ average headcount. Count everyone who left, whatever the reason.
Your answers stay on this page – nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
A note on this calculator
Two figures in this tool are externally verified: the sector turnover rate (Skills for Care, 2024/25) and the DBS fee (gov.uk). Every other cost is an editable assumption – the defaults are sensible starting points, and your real figures will give a sharper answer. The result is deliberately conservative: it leaves out vacancy cover, agency premiums, management time and lost continuity, so your true cost of turnover is higher. This is not financial advice.
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How to use this calculator
- Start with your team. Headcount and turnover set the scale. If you don’t know your turnover, the sector average of 23.1% is the honest starting point.
- Cost one hire. Advertising, DBS, kit, paid induction and shadowing. Replace the defaults with your real spend – it takes a minute and changes the answer.
- Read the annual figure. Cost per leaver times leavers per year. That’s the recruitment money that walks out of the door annually.
- Look at the retention line. The result shows what cutting turnover by five points would save – that’s your budget case for retention work.
Worked examples
40 carers at sector-average turnover
23.1% turnover means about 9 leavers a year, each costing about £1,020 to replace on the default assumptions.
About £9,400 a year
walking out of the door in recruitment costs
100 carers with 30% turnover
Higher churn compounds fast: 30 leavers a year on the same default per-hire costs.
About £30,600 a year
before vacancy cover and lost continuity
The same service, five points better
Cutting turnover from 30% to 25% keeps five more carers a year and their recruitment costs in the budget.
About £5,100 a year
saved by a five-point retention gain
Carer recruitment costs: your questions answered
Where do the figures come from?
The turnover benchmark (23.1%) and the first-year leaver rate (43.5%) come from Skills for Care’s State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England 2025. The enhanced DBS fee (£49.50) is set by government. Everything else is an editable assumption – the tool tells you which is which.
Is the result the full cost of turnover?
No – it’s the floor. The calculator counts direct recruitment and onboarding costs only. It leaves out covering the vacancy with agency staff or overtime, management time spent interviewing, and the cost of lost continuity for clients. Most services’ true cost is well above the number shown.
What actually improves retention?
Skills for Care tracks five factors: pay, not being on a zero-hours contract, receiving training, holding a relevant qualification, and working full-time. Workers with none of these are almost three times more likely to leave than workers with all five (42.2% against 14.4%). Day-to-day experience matters too – clear rotas, fair travel time and less paperwork all show up in exit interviews.
Why do new starters matter so much?
Because they leave the most. Turnover for people with less than a year in the sector was 43.5% in 2024/25 – nearly double the sector average. Every improvement to your first three months (induction quality, shadowing, early support) pays back fastest.
Should I count carers who move to another care employer?
Yes. Skills for Care found 53% of recruitment comes from within the sector, but the cost to you is the same whether a leaver joins another provider or leaves care entirely. Count every leaver.
Is this calculator really free?
Yes. There is no sign-up and no email capture. Your answers stay on this page – nothing is saved or sent anywhere. We make PASS, the care management platform, and free tools like this are our way of being useful to the sector.
Keep the carers you already have.
PASS takes the daily friction out of care work – clear rotas, guidance on every visit, less paperwork. Take a free tour and see the working day you could offer your team.
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