Meeting the demand of the government’s proposed Personal Care at Home Bill poses no short-term resourcing problems but difficulties lie further ahead, according to recruiters.

According to reports, details of the bill will be announced in today Queen’s speech, which will provide a £670m fund to ensure free personal care at home for 280,000 elderly and disabled people with the highest needs and extra support for a further 130,000 who require home care.

Jo Wallis, chief executive at healthcare recruiter Geneva, told Recruiter: “The key factors will be training and resourcing staff. There is currently no registration ofdomiciliary care workers in this country.

“This level of care worker is a non-registered worker. With the downturn, we have seen more people wanting to get into care working in the home.

“Previously, these roles have been low paid and most agencies would say they have had difficulty attracting enough care workers into the sector but we have definitely seen that change.”

Lesley Packham, director at Universal Care, adds: “We are getting people who are over-qualified to be carers. I am sure as the economic climate improves, these candidates will disappear.

“In the short term, sourcing candidates is not a problem but in the medium to long term it will be. We have got to start looking at solutions outside of the norm. We need to look at apprenticeships into care and attracting younger people to the sector. We have to ensure carers feel professional and more valued.”