ABSTRACT

Three striking findings in this paper are, firstly, the Dutch and Taiwanese results show that when pay was adequate, job satisfaction was found, the autonomy of consumer choice was strong and a public subsidy was in place with an alternative employment pool or early action to address shortages of ageing-care workers. It is thus very likely that quantity will be ensured. In contrast, England was far from achieving that success. Secondly, on the issue of quality, the Dutch and Taiwanese results show that credentialing prior to employment had a strong positive effect on knowledge and skills. Education, training and credentialing investment in ageing-care workers cannot be isolated from collaboration within a wider range of care actors. The Dutch and English findings demonstrate the importance of credible career development if ageing-care workers’ commitment to further training is to be ensured. Finally, the features of the care market had a significant effect on the variation of quality and quantity of ageing-care workers. Indeed, a for-profit sector arguably resulted in poorer quantity and quality ageing-care workers in a context of limited public and/or care recipient investment. Overall, viewing the results of this study in the context of the policy environments explored earlier, it is evident that the quality of ageing-care workers is closely associated with their quantity, and that both reflect the interaction between care policies and care actors in any given context. This East and West comparison found some exemplars of successful responses on the issue of care workers in each county studied, suggesting further potential for crosscontinent learning.