To think that most people are not aware of the dire staffing crisis in social care.

[TravellingSpoon]

I work in social care and have amazing colleagues across a range of services, however every single one without fail is short staffed, some dangerously so and they are not able to recruit staff to fill the tens of thousands of vacancies across the whole sector.

Its a perfect storm of staff burnout, low wages, covid, mandatory vaccinations and brexit.

I work in the community and our team is covering care provider handbacks as well as our normal caseload. These are cases that care providers just can't cover due to staffing issues.

Another concern is that some companies are becoming so desperate they are employing people who are not fit for the job. They don't have the skills or the right attitude for the job.

I love the job I do and couldn't imagine working in another sector, but to me it feels like its on the brink, and it never gets the same sort of love that the NHS gets, the handwringing and the campaigning.

Completely agree

My cousin a carehome manager said to me. You have to be absolutely desperate to put someone in a home right now.

Not a great place to be as many don't have the luxury to care from home or the patient is too unwell. Dangerous to be left to own devices etc

I agree OP, I also work in the sector, although in more of an overview type role and more and more we are seeing poor care being provided, either because there is not enough staff to provide safe and person centred care and/or the staff that are employed are not trained/competent/fit because there simply aren’t enough competent and fully skilled people around.

Ive worked in the sector a good few years now and I’ve never seen staffing levels so critical across the board. I’m very concerned it will take some serious incidents for DHSC to sit up and do something. To be honest it may already be too late.

I wasn't until today when on our local news the council said it was now prepared to pay relatives to care for their own relatives in some circumstances. Said legislation has just changed.

Sadly, because of personal experience, I've been aware of this since the Pandemic began

Absolutely 💯 get this, I work in a monitoring role. Have worked in health and social care for 30+ years and have never known anything like it. It’s imploding before my eyes and it’s just unworkable. I can’t see how we can come back from this.

We are so short staffed on nights and have 2 agency every night. Would hate to see the bill, its been going on for more than 6 months.

I don't work in that sector but I can well imagine how tough it is right now. My mum worked in that sector her whole career and I did a short stint - never again. It's really hard work and I can understand why it's not appealing. I don't know what I can say but I hope there's a solution for you x

Home care is not in any better of a position too

It’s dire. My friend’s disabled daughter lives in a residential care home and staffing levels are often way below where they should be. They lost a few staff due to Brexit and several more who had to leave due to the vaccine requirement. They’ve not been able to replace any of them. They have 3 houses and have temporarily shut one and merged the other two.

I’m well aware. I work in public transport and I see people moaning about missed services…there are no people willing or qualified to do any of these important jobs. We’re on a precipice OP and I agree, about to fall.

Yes I went for an interview for a resourcer for a care residential educational home trust no thanks - no way are you going to be able to fulfil their vacancies they’re asking me what I wd do ? I turned it onto them what are you doing that isn’t working ? Ie poor pay crap hours oh well we can’t pay more etc I said well you’ll have to close 🤷‍♀️

The problem is, if you point out what's happening, you'll get told it's 'coz covid' and there's nothing they could have done. But this has been an issue for much longer, Brexit plus covid plus the mandate has just exacerbated an existing problem.

In the months I was visiting at a hospital (through a window) I saw so many people discharged without any support, when they clearly needed it. Some would be readmitted within few days, but what happened to the rest? I don't know. Sent home with limited mobility and no means to look after themselves, get food, get a wash. One man like this had a wife at home with advanced dementia, he looked after her. The nursing staff suggested she look after him.

It's heartbreaking. It's bloody infuriating.

@RJnomore1

Home care is not in any better of a position too

I know, so many companies round here are handing back packages (which we are picking up) mostly because they dont have the staff to cover it.

Staff members are being put on more and more to pick up extra shifts, extra hours. But even with that it isnt enough. Ive done 11 days straight, and have another 2 days until I am off, and so many of my colleagues are similar. It isnt legal but what can you do.

My disabled uncle (90) and aunt (82) used to have four visits a day from two carers.

Due to Covid and isolations, there was a time in November when those couldn't be covered so my aunt was taken into a local care home for a week.

The visits have never resumed. The company say they don't have the staff.
Instead, one or two (random as to which) carer(s) visit in a morning to help my uncle wash @and - if there are two - offer to get him up. He usually refuses, and has no option on days when there are only one carer anyway.

So he spends the day in bed, cared for by my disabled cousin, who has to leave him a couple of times a week to go and visit her mum via two buses.

It is heartbreaking, and social services say they are working on a plan, but don't have sufficient staffing to get mum home or increase the care visits. Meanwhile the care home have told my cousin that the aunt will have to move on as this was a short term emergency placement.

It is absolutely a care crisis.

I’m working for DWP we do job fairs I was at one in November next to a care company the lady told me there were 782 vacancies in Gloucestershire alone and by April with the mandated vaccine they were expecting those to rise. We have care jobs we can’t fill if you see a care company you know there is going to be no interest - before Christmas locally pubs/restaurants we’re paying £15 an hr to get staff. When I had the interview for the resourcer this week the interviewer said we are an educational trust we can’t pay more and I thought you won’t be getting staff then 🤷‍♀️ It is a massive crisis

I have relatives who work in a care home. They do a very difficult job for minimum wage. When pinged to self isolate, they had to take the time unpaid or as a holiday. On days off they are badgered to work. The calibre of new recruits is shockingly bad but tolerated out of desperation, so the experienced staff are put under even more pressure.

Last week, with ten minutes to the end of his shift at 7pm, my relative had to take a resident to A&E with a broken wrist. He stayed with them until they were on a ward and arrived home at 4am, due in work at 7am. He asked his line manager if he could come in late - no. He asked if he would be paid for the overtime - no.

You have got to be devoted to keep doing it when you can earn the same in a supermarket or anywhere.

Yesterday they had a meeting - we are dangerously understaffed, what can we do to retain and recruit staff. Isn't it obvious??

This is a 5* home costing £1500 per week to residents.

Blame the greedy grasping money obsessed homecare company owners for taking on more clients than they can accommodate with the staff they've got.

The staff numbers aren't goi g to increase so the only thing to do is decrease the client numbers.

I am aware and I’m not in the sector.

But only in a very abstract way because it isn’t very well covered in my news sources. I became acutely aware of it when working in a local authority.

@ThisIsStartingToBoreMe

Blame the greedy grasping money obsessed homecare company owners for taking on more clients than they can accommodate with the staff they've got.

The staff numbers aren't goi g to increase so the only thing to do is decrease the client numbers.

Blame the government for cutting local authorities funding. And pushing them to private providers who make promises of providing cheap care.

Our council tax never covered the cost of local authority services (which includes social care) - aside from a few exceptions - and central government provided the rest. Until the austerity measures came in and cut funds. Then did a neat trick of blaming authorities.

I employ private carers for my grandpa who's at home, I pay them £12 an hour Monday/Friday and £15 an hour weekends and bank holidays if we need that (although family generally do that we have a rota) and then we as a family fill in the gaps - he has 4 hours of care a day at various points (some paid and some family) then if he isn't well one of us will stop over. We claim attendance allowance which covers a good chunk of it.

If I was a carer I'd advertise for my own clients as there's a market for it and care home pay minimum wage whereas families generally pay more and it's still cheaper than paying an agency plus you build up that relationship - the ladies who come to us are like extended family. One of them also does
Some cleaning, washing and ironing too but it keeps him company as they chat to him while they are there.

My friend does this with her Mum and gave me the idea and it works really well.

A care home at the moment would be a last resort but obviously as his needs change we might need to think about it but those poor staff working for so little doing so much is awful, I feel for them all.

I'm aware, partly because it's been on the news a lot but also because a friend works in residential care.

She's bank staff, and they are always pressurising her to work more and more shifts. They are constantly short of staff, they have had 3 pay increases in 5 months to try and improve retention, but still the home where she works has had to turn down new residents because they don't have enough staff to maintain safe staffing levels for any more.

She lives and works in a small town in a rural area with no major employers for miles. They used to be able to get staff really easily, but not any more.

I also know because I work in a related field. The wait for assessments prior to discharge from hospital is now 6-8 weeks in my area and the wait for routine OT assessments is much longer than that.

It’s a massive crisis. I work with adults with LD. We have agency on every shift, we have staff doing 12 hr shifts, we’ve lost a few that we’re not suitable for the job and we’ve lost some to agencies as the agencies pay another £5 a hour more than we do. It is demoralising, I took a person I support to Wetherspoons for a drink before Xmas, they had signs up for bar staff and waitresses, over a £1 more an hour than were on. I’m responsible for adminstering medication as well, the responsibility is huge compared to the amount we get paid.

I’m approaching burnout. I crave a job which requires less thought and responsibility, one which I don’t take home with me everyday. I’ve found a packing job which has better hours for 36p less an hour, I’m applying for it and will stay as relief for my current job.

Without paying better money and decreasing the responsibilities care work will become less and less appealing to many.

@Cheeseplantboots

It’s dire. My friend’s disabled daughter lives in a residential care home and staffing levels are often way below where they should be. They lost a few staff due to Brexit and several more who had to leave due to the vaccine requirement. They’ve not been able to replace any of them. They have 3 houses and have temporarily shut one and merged the other two.

The organisation I work for runs several residential homes and schemes for a very specific client group. They were very pro-active in supporting EU staff to apply for settled status, so thankfully weren't too badly affected by Brexit.

However, they are starting to lose staff now because they can't afford to pay them as much as they can earn in retail and other areas.

I agree re employing private carers and paying more.
A friend worked in a care home during lockdown. The pay is very low for the responsibility. The care home was run on the minimum number of staff possible and she couldn't spend the time she wanted to with residents. There were no family visits and any positive tests meant residents had to stay in their rooms on their own. She often was asked to stay on and do a double shift when staff didn't turn up.

I think retail and hospitality have recruited hard and increased pay since reopening after the pandemic. Those unskilled jobs now look very attractive when compared to working in care.