Recruitment Comment

As a company Care More welcomes the urgency that the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay has put on increasing the workforce for social care. 

In his first interview, held by the Telegraph, since becoming Health Secretary, Mr Barclay has said that his department is in a ‘real sprint’ to get ready for September. His proposals to significantly increase overseas recruitment is also welcomed. His suggestion of hiring from the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka, which he states produced more nurses than they need, could also help the sector a great deal. 

According to government figures, there are currently 105 000 job vacancies in the care sector. It has also been reported in the commons, that 1 in 3 care workers left their jobs last year due to the stresses highlighted by the pandemic. Another widely reported fact is that 95%of care providers are struggling to recruit. Care England describes the situation as the greatest workforce crisis in the history of the Adult Social Care sector. 

A report from the Care Workers Charity shows that an independent review of government policy, commissioned by the health and social care committee, finds the overall response to workforce issues has been inadequate and the committee urged the government to increase annual funding to social care by 7 billion a year.

With winter fast approaching the Health Secretary has warned of a ‘triple threat’ of covid, seasonal flu and the cost-of-living crisis. Something drastic must be done now in order to address the huge need for a qualified caring workforce.

The lack of staff in the Adult social care sector has a direct knock-on effect and 85% of healthcare leaders agree that the issues of discharge from hospital into social care is the number one cause of delayed discharge of medically fit patients. The Care Workers Charity suggests that monthly data states 12 400 healthy patients are waiting to be discharged into adult social care on any given day. 

At Care More we are always trying to increase staff welfare and recruit and retain a robust, caring workforce into our company with the expectation of providing exceptional care every time and would love to see our carers getting the recognition they deserve. We think Social care is an exciting career and hold regular recruitment days locally as we feel we must all encourage new people to join the sector to prevent the looming disaster.

Written by K Patel

Information from articles written by the Care Workers Charity and the Carer Magazine.