New report finds crisis in social care staffing
Almost half (49%) of the UK’s home care workers are on zero-hour contracts, compared with 2.9% of the workforce nationally, a government committee has found.
The final report of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s Adult Social Care inquiry, published today, also found that 47.8% of care workers leave their jobs within a year of starting.
Overall the report identifies a sector in serious difficulty with “severe challenges” facing the care workforce. High vacancy and turnover rates, poor employment terms and conditions, low pay resulting from the lack of esteem the work is held in, lack of training and lack of opportunities for career progression are cited as key factors exacerbated by funding problems.
Among other points, the report concludes that the government should publish a care workers’ charter, which would set out what care workers can expect from their employer on wage levels, employment terms and conditions, training and career development.
The committee has also called for improvement in the status of care work. “Better pay, commensurate with skills and responsibilities, and better terms and conditions, including pensions, will be part of this, as will the development of a strong career structure,” the report said.
Also the committee called on ministers to provide extra funding for social care while they address the long-term problems facing the sector.
The report warned, “unless significant extra funds are provided in the short and medium terms, the social care system will be unable to cope with the demands placed upon it”.
Further, the report said that constraints on funding have led to “serious threats to care providers’ financial viability, which mean providers failing, exiting the market and handing back contracts for provision of care services”.
It goes on to say that increased demand, “problems with supply and significant shortages in the workforce” have affected the care market’s stability.
While the committee welcomed Chancellor Philip Hammond’s commitment to provide an additional £2bn for social care over the next three years, it went on to say that this was not enough to close the social care funding gap.
Other key points in the final report were:
• 160,000 to 220,000 care workers in England are paid below the National Minimum Wage
• the turnover rate for nurses working in social care is 35.9%
• the pursuit of low fees becoming the driving factor in commissioning for many council, undermining their relationships with care providers.
Niall Dickson, CEO of the NHS Confederation, which represents health service organisations across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the organisation joined the committee in “welcoming the additional £2bn for social care over the next three years”.
He also said he was “pleased the government has woken up to the pressures on hospitals and community services from huge numbers of vulnerable older people receiving inadequate or non-existent care”.
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