News

(see below for link to full report)

A long-term workforce planning strategy for social care and health is urgently needed to stem the severe recruitment crisis in London, urges a new report, writes Rachel Downey.

The report on the recruitment and retention of social care staff in the capital outlines the severity of the crisis and analyses the impact it is having in London social services departments on both workers and services.

Written by Anthony Douglas, executive director of community services at Havering, the report reveals that some social work teams in London are running vacancy rates of up to 40 per cent. Many home care and residential staff are covering for absent colleagues or unfilled posts at the same time as doing their own job.

"Personal care jobs which should take 30 minutes are often crammed into 15 or 20 so that time is gained for the extra work," it says. Services are increasingly restricted to individuals and families on the edge of breakdown.

The report was launched earlier this week as part of 'Care in the Capital' week, an initiative by Community Care, to focus attention on the recruitment crisis in the capital; share solutions, and promote social care as a career.

It points out that the crisis is not confined to frontline staff. Gaps in middle management across London have left many staff feeling exposed and unsupported. This in turn leads to further exodus from high pressure jobs.

Filling "new initiative" posts, such as those in Sure Start and Connexions, is not difficult, but the staff are coming from local authorities, leaving the frontline deserted. "As a consequence, the standard of practice in specialist projects is often much higher than in frontline child protection and children looked after teams, the very opposite of what was intended when the government developed ring-fenced or specific grants to improve overall standards of practice."

The result is that London boroughs are relying for frontline workers on staff from agencies "who charge a rapidly rising premium not far short of institutional extortion". An increasing number of social care staff are from overseas on working visas. Care cannot be consistent as agency staff come and go. "The likelihood is that a child, or indeed any other vulnerable person, will have a series of social workers and care providers, all with different approaches and different opinions," it says. "Discontinuity of care is often the norm."

The report urges an end to the constant reorganisation facing the public sector in London. Managers are being tied up in restructuring or making new organisations work. It argues that jobs in social work and social care need to become more manageable as too many staff feel their "psychological contract" with their employer is being breached, and many are working long hours with varying degrees of enthusiasm and tolerance for what it does to their lives.

The report concludes that the situation is not universally desperate, but soon will be as experienced staff are retiring without being replaced by new recruits. It predicts the adverse trends will worsen by the need to expand the NHS workforce to fulfil the government's pledges, which will impact on care management and occupational therapy.

Before any national workforce planning tackles the shortages, services are going to depend on employing more unqualified staff; more re-employment of retired people; more overseas recruitment as well as improved co-ordination of recruitment methods across all 33 London boroughs.

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Proposed solutions include:

- establish an office for recruitment and retention in health and social care in London

- develop a coherent approach to recruitment and retention initiatives in the public sector in London

- commission a fundamental review of health and social care trends in the next 30 years

- review pay and benefits packages for social care staff

- extend high profile campaigns promoting a positive image of social work and social care in London

- introduce 'care' into the national curriculum

- introduce workforce planning requirements on all social care organisations

- ensure sufficient affordable housing is available for all key workers in London.

Care in the Capital is supported by Celsian.

Click here to view full report and print it.