Britain's new Prime Minister must end reliance on expensive agency staff says care chief

Prime Minister Liz Truss must intervene to solve a care staffing crisis which has led to a sticking plaster reliance on agency staff who can be more expensive, inexperienced and unreliable, says Care England's chief executive.

Her predecessor Boris Johnson promised to fix social care but during his time in office job vacancies in the care sector rose by 52 per cent (55,000) in the last twelve months, according to Skills for Care data.

Poor quality, less experienced and poorly trained

To cope with staff shortages, a Care England poll of 95 care home and home care providers has revealed 78 per cent are using more agency workers than in 2021 but 73 per cent think agency staff are less reliable.

Care home providers say many agency workers are poor quality, less experienced and inappropriately trained. Some 86 per cent of care providers polled (collectively responsible for 70,000 registered beds), said the costs of agency staff have increased since April 2021 and 77 per cent said it became more difficult to book them.

Agency staff are a ‘bandage’ for recruitment issues

"The use of agency staff has been a bandage over more deep-rooted recruitment and retention issues, which now, expectedly, are unravelling”, said Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents independent care providers.

"The results of our recent survey demonstrate the severity of these issues, with the usage and cost of agency staff increasing dramatically over the last year."

Care England’s Agency Fee Survey revealed how the Covid-19 pandemic has made care homes’ reliance on expensive agency staff worse. Agency rates are significantly more than care worker (£19.57 vs £9.90) and nurse (£27.56 vs £19.49) employee hourly rates.

Some workers who left care jobs because of pay are reportedly moving to higher-paid agency work.

Mr Johnson's government also announced it would allocate £500m over the next three years to boost the career development and wellbeing of social care staff.

However, the £500m promised via the Health and Social Care Levy for the workforce over the next three years (equating to 5.7p per hour for each sector employee) may not materialise as Liz Truss reportedly plans to scrap the National Insurance increase that funds the Health and Social Care Levy.

Agency is short-term solution that is 'not sustainable'

Shortly before Mr Johnson left office, his government announced plans to expand overseas recruitment of care staff.

Martin Green welcomed the announcement and said: "There is a rich pool of individuals both internationally and domestically that have the potential to bolster the workforce and reduce reliance on agency staff."

Care England wants to see equal pay rates between domestic and overseas staff and a plan for overseas recruitment in line with the code of practice on global staff shortages.

Care England has backed calls from the House of Commons’ levelling up select committee, for the government to give £7bn a year extra for social care and consider a cap on agency fees, as is the case in the NHS.

He warned: “Agency is a short-term solution which has now snowballed into a long-term fix for adult social care providers. This is not sustainable.”