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Employers must collaborate to improve the recruitment and retention of staff, according to speakers at a session at Community Care Live Scotland on the social care workforce, writes Keith Sellick.

Social care employers were in competition for staff with other sectors such as supermarkets and call centres.

“If we lose a member of staff we joke that they have gone to Tescos. But in most cases they have gone to supermarkets,” said Clare Smith, human resources director for charity Leonard Cheshire.

Smith said that private and voluntary sector employers identified inadequate fees as a major barrier to paying staff adequate wages.

Carole Wilkinson, chief executive of the Scottish Social Services Council, agreed that social care was competing with other industries for staff and called for employers, colleges, funders and sector skills councils to collaborate and influence the development of training and recruitment initiatives.

Val Lockhart, HR director at Castlehill Housing Association, said that: “local providers should get together to provide level playing field.” Local collaboration should focus on workforce development, leadership and resources, she added.

Edinburgh councillor Kingsley Thomas said that the council had revamped its recruitment process and increased by 10 per cent the numbers of its home care staff from just fewer than 1,000 in the last six months of 2003.