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18
Aug 2021
Social care at ‘tipping point’ as staff shortages deepen with 1,000 vacancies
Social care in North Yorkshire is facing an imminent staffing crisis health officials have warned after they revealed a worrying drop in the number of people coming forward for vacant jobs.
Richard Webb, director of health and adult services at North Yorkshire County Council, said the sector is facing “unrelenting” pressures and that it had reached “tipping point” over recent weeks with a 70 per cent drop in applications for 1,000 jobs currently vacant.
He said the NHS has also not escaped the staffing problems which existed before the pandemic but have only been exacerbated by the virus outbreak.
Mr Webb told a meeting of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum today:
Nationally, social care looks after around 400,000 people in care and nursing homes – three times the number in NHS hospital beds.
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There are also around 640,000 people receiving care in their own homes.
Independent Care Group (ICG), a non-profit organisation which provides services in North Yorkshire and York, has raised concerns that as these numbers continue to rise, there may soon not be enough staff to care for the elderly and most vulnerable in society.
Mike Padgham, ICG chairman, said in a statement:
Mr Padgham is also calling on the government for short-term help and to also accelerate its long-delayed plans to overhaul the social care sector which ministers have pledged to publish by the end of the year.
A specific tax to help find the extra billions needed in funding and directing more cash straight to care homes are all ideas which have previously been brought to table, but these have never come to fruition.
Speaking at today’s meeting, Mr Webb said the reforms would not be a quick fix to the problems the sector is facing and that the county council would continue stepping up its support for care providers.
He said:
The county council is also urging people to consider careers in social care as part of its Make Care Matter campaign.
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