Nearly half of care workers leave the job within a
year, a report has found, prompting calls for the Government to urgently
address serious threats to social care provision.
A damning study by the Communities
and Local Government (CLG) Committee found that half of care workers (48
per cent) leave within a year of starting, while the annual turnover rate
for nurses working in social care stands at 36 per cent – meaning the
sector is having to replace more than a third of nurses each year.
In 2015, seven per cent of roles
(84,000 jobs) were vacant, pointing to “severe challenges in maintaining
staffing levels”, amid warnings that another 275,000 people will be needed
to work in the sector by 2025.
In an indication of “acute financial
threats” faced by care workers, the report revealed that half of care
workers are on zero hour contracts, compared with three per cent of national
work force, while the median hourly pay for a care worker stands at just £7.40.
Concerns were also raised over the lack of training
provided to care workers, with the report finding nearly one in four (24 per
cent) administer medication they are not trained to do, and 27 per cent had no
dementia training.
One former care worker, who worked in
a care home on a zero hour contract for a year, told The
Independent the work was "stressful" and that she got
"very little training", adding that because of the low pay and long
hours, some people “cut corners”.
“The pay was so low, particularly for what you’re
expected to do. We received minimum wage, £7.20 an hour I think,” said the
woman, who asked not to be named.
“I was basically thrown into the deep end with very
little training. I had a couple of days of ‘observing’ but then I was expected
to just do whatever the other employees were doing. I didn’t feel supported at
all and there was far too much to do with just two carers on the floor.
“I mostly worked with people from EU countries like
Romania and Poland, and many of these people would work five 12-hour shifts a
week, mainly to support their families. I was shocked at how much they
worked for so little – it’s exhausting work.
“I felt among some staff there was resentment if
the managers and people earning crazy amounts while they worked so hard and got
barely anything. For some staff... this led to their work becoming sloppy and
cutting corners.
“I know I couldn't do it long term. It was tiring,
stressful and you don't see the reward in money.”
In a sign of the pressures placed on
staff in the sector, figures from the Office of National Statistics
(ONS) revealed
earlier this month that care workers in
the UK face a suicide risk that is almost twice the national average.
The DLG Committee warned in the report that unless
significant extra funds were provided in the short and medium terms, the social
care system would be “unable to cope with the demands placed upon it”, adding
that while extra funding alone would not solve the problems, the other steps
suggested would “simply fail” without it.
While Chancellor Philip Hammond
announced in his budget earlier this month that an additional
£2bn would be provided to adult social care over the next three years, the
Committee said this fell short of the amount required to close the social
care funding gap, and recommended an urgent review of how to fund social care
in the long-term.
Clive Betts, Chair of the Communities and Local
Government Committee, said care providers were facing "acute threats"
financially, as well as a lack of training and inadequate career opportunities
within the sector, adding that they are “not rewarded” for the
responsibilities they take on.
“Adult care workers are to often seen
as people who wheel a trolley around and make the tea for people, but it’s a
lot more than that,” Mr Betts told The Independent.
“When you think people have a
responsibility to administer medication, to ensure people have a proper bath or
a shower, even just helping them get up and have a proper meal. It’s a real
responsibility and people are not rewarded for it.
“There should be some sort of formal,
higher qualification in social care and then the possibility of moving onto a
nursing qualification. That could all be there for people as a career
possibility.”
He added: “During our inquiry we heard mounting
concerns about the serious impact which inadequate funding is having both on
the quality and on the level of care which people receive. We heard compelling
evidence of acute threats to care providers’ financial viability and an
increasing reliance on unpaid carers.
“A long-term fix, working on a cross-party basis
and involving the public and social care sector, is urgently necessary to meet
the ever-increasing demographic pressures on the system.
“This review must be ambitious and consider a wide
range of potential funding sources, looking again at age-related expenditure,
options such as a hypothecated tax for social care, a compulsory insurance
scheme, and differences in how individuals contribute.”
Responding to the findings in the report, Richard
Humphries, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund, an independent charity working to
improve health and health care in England, said: "While the extra money
announced in the recent Budget was welcome and will make a short-term
difference, it does not provide a long-term solution.
"This means it is vital that the Green Paper
due later this year sets out a radical vision for the future of social care and
a sustainable funding settlement.
"Crucially, the government must follow through
by implementing the long-term reforms that are so badly needed. Too many
previous governments have said the right things but then failed to deliver –
this government must have the courage to break the mould.”
Urging that the issue "cannot be
ignored", David Pearson, Honorary Treasurer of the Association of
Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), said: “The report highlights the
worrying consequences of the pressures on adult social care, and makes a
compelling case for immediate extra funding.
“Social care needs to be treated as a national
priority to ensure thousands of elderly and disabled people and their families
get the personal and dignified care they deserve.
“Not only are people living longer and with
increasingly complex needs, care workforce challenges, including the welcome
national living wage and retention of staff, are creating further pressures -
the need to future-proof the social care system cannot be ignored.”
The CLG Committee held eight evidence sessions over
four months for its full Adult Social Care inquiry into the financial
sustainability of local authority social care and the quality of care provided,
which has questioned a range of witnesses from carers and people who receive
local authority funded social care to local authorities, care providers and NHS
representatives.
When approached for a comment, a Government
spokesperson said: “We recognise the challenges councils face in delivering
social care and the need for a long-term sustainable solution. That’s why we’re
giving councils an extra £2bn to help deliver these services, taking the total
to £9.25 billion over the remainder of this Parliament.
“It’s also why we’re committed to having a fair and
more sustainable way of funding adult social care for the future, especially
given people are living longer. We’ll be setting out our proposals in a
forthcoming green paper.”
SOURCE: May Bulman, Independent
