Care agencies in Warwickshire struggling to fill job roles amid rising fuel prices
Zoe Mayhew, a strategy and commissioning manager with Warwickshire County Council, told the meeting of the adult social care and health overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday (June 22) about the ongoing battle to recruit more staff.
She said: “None of you will be surprised to learn that there is a workforce crisis for frontline care nationally and we are certainly feeling that in Warwickshire.
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Hide Ad“The current vacancy rate since March 2021 is 10.3 per cent which has increased significantly and there is a real problem within domiciliary care where the current vacancy rate is 13.4 per cent.”
She explained that in the first three months of the year, there were 2.2m hours of care nationally which could not be delivered because of staff shortages.
On the subject of travel costs, Ms Mayhew added: “We are now getting feedback particularly from domiciliary care providers saying they are having a number of carers leave the service due to fuel costs. We have 21 carers who have left, saying that if they move into residential or nursing care then it’s much cheaper for them because they don’t need to run a car.
“It is beginning to have an impact on an already difficult market particularly in Warwickshire which is huge and where rurality is an issue. We are looking at how we can commission differently in terms of making provision much more localised.”
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Hide AdChris Bain, from Healthwatch Warwickshire, said one of the problems with recruiting lay with the profession’s negative image.
He said: “It is frequently portrayed in terms of deficit and decline and if you are beginning to approach younger candidates, is that something that will attract them?
“It is not just carers - I was looking at mental health services and the care assistants working there and the challenges they are having.
"When you can earn more delivering parcels for Amazon than you can for dealing with people who have a mental illness then there is a real problem somewhere.”