Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of
the shortage of social care workers for (1) residential care
homes, and (2) domiciliary care.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con)
My Lords, there is no doubt that we need more people to choose to
work in social care. Prior to the pandemic, the vacancy rates for
care workers in residential care and domiciliary care were 6.4%
and 11.4% respectively. By June 2020, that had declined to an
overall rate of 6.6%. We would like to see this number reduced
further, which is why we are taking action to support recruitment
nationally, and we expect local authorities to support care
providers locally.
(Lab) [V]
My Lords, yesterday the Prime Minister promised again to deal
with the problem of social care. First, how will the Government
fill these vacancies as a matter of urgency? Secondly, what
priority will there be for social care in the Government’s
digital and healthcare strategy?
(Con)
My Lords, the immediate focus is on the national recruitment
campaign across broadcast, digital and social media. We
acknowledge that there needs to be more recruitment in social
care. Encouragingly, the vacancy rate is down, from 7.8% to 6.6%,
but we recognise that more needs to be done. We have launched the
CARE brand to try to create a stronger employment brand around
the care profession.
(Con) [V]
My Lords, I welcome the increase in the number of social care
workers but there is more to be done not just in social care but
across the wider NHS. Can my noble friend update the House on
progress on wider NHS recruitment and, in particular, the
manifesto commitment of 50,000 more nurses for the NHS? I hope,
too, that there will be a reduction in the proportion of
expensive agency-employed staff.
(Con)
My Lords, the recruitment of nurses is extremely encouraging. We
have had an enormous response, with more than 10,000 nurses
already recruited and recruitment rates to universities for
nursing qualifications also up. We have an enormous marketing
campaign supported by broadcast and social media. However, more
needs to be done and we are very focused on this area. The use of
agencies provides some surge capacity for hospitals—it has a
role—but I completely acknowledge my noble friend’s point that
agency support needs to be used in a considered, thoughtful and
commercially intelligent way.
(CB) [V]
My Lords, the introduction of living allowances for nursing
students has improved recruitment this autumn. Stable funding for
social care purchasers and providers in both care homes and
domiciliary-based service is necessary to ensure dignity in care
for the vulnerable in our society. It is essential that careers
in social care are attractive and that staff are supported to
deliver high-quality personalised care to clients. What plans do
Her Majesty’s Government have to support local authorities,
further education colleges and social care providers to train and
retrain social care staff? Central funding is necessary.
Incentives are needed to demonstrate that those joining the
social care workforce are as valued by government and society as
those working in the NHS.
(Con)
The noble Baroness makes her point extremely well. We want social
care to be a profession that people seek out, where they seek
professional development and where they can find a fulfilling
lifetime career. That will not be true for everyone, but we need
a backbone of people who are committed to social care. That is
why we have massively increased the funding to local authorities
so that they can address the challenge of social care, and why we
have published the adult social care coronavirus winter plan in
order to provide short-term support for local authorities to
achieve exactly what the noble Baroness has spelled out.
The Lord Speaker ()
Short supplementaries, please.
(Lab)
[V]
My Lords, when there is a shortage of care workers, as there
clearly is, the need for care does not go away; it simply falls
disproportionately on the families and neighbours—the unpaid
carers. Some 70% of these say that they have had to give more
care than previously during the pandemic, with an average of 10
hours extra a week. How will these extra burdens on unpaid carers
be recognised and supported both in the long-term plan and in
social care reform, when we eventually get it?
(Con)
My Lords, I pay tribute to all those who contribute to the care
of loved ones, neighbours and people in their community. The
noble Baroness is entirely right to acknowledge the enormous
contribution, born of civic duty and personal love, that people
put into caring for those in need. I acknowledge the 10 extra
hours that she mentioned; I have no doubt that many have had to
put in extra work during the pandemic. That is why we have put in
significant financial support for the charity sector, and these
are the considerations that we will put into future social care
reform.
(LD) [V]
My Lords, health and care workers can now be reimbursed for the
immigration health surcharge. While this is unlikely to fill the
gap identified by the noble Lord, , it is welcome.
How are the Government ensuring that all care workers who do not
work in large hospitals are aware of their right to the refund,
and how are they monitoring what percentage of those eligible are
making the claim and what sort of establishment they work in?
(Con)
This is a very important piece of communication. We have sought
to work through the colleges and through the CQC system in order
to make sure that employers make knowledge of these funds
available to those in social care. I will look at the department
to see what we are monitoring and what the take-up rates have
been, and if I have any further information I will be glad to
write to the noble Baroness with that data.
(Lab)
My Lords, on agency staff, according to workforce statistics from
the Department for Education in February, the number of agency
social workers grew by 10% last year. Cheshire East Council, for
example, spent more than £1.3 million on agency social workers
last year, and these costs also include the fees that the
authority has to pay to the agencies. What funding and other
support has been provided to local councils specifically to
enable them to reduce the reliance on agency staff and to ensure
that the money spent on temporary staff in social care
departments, care homes and domiciliary care can instead be used
to increase the number of permanent, full-time and part-time
staff in social care that are so desperately needed?
(Con)
My Lords, the use of agency staff in itself is not something that
we are fighting against. Agency staff, although often denigrated,
provide an incredibly valuable contribution to the social care
efforts of the country. That said, the main way in which we can
address the dependence on sometimes expensive employment
practices is to ensure that there is a really large pool of
people taking the kinds of jobs offered in social care. That is
why we are marketing those roles heavily, improving the employer
brand around social care and improving the financial arrangements
for those seeking training in social care.
(Con) [V]
My Lords, the latest annual Care Quality Commission State of Care
report shows that quality levels in adult social care have been
maintained, with 84% of services rated as either good or
outstanding, up from 82% last year. Given the dedicated service
of our care workers, will my noble friend the Minister update the
House on whether a new deal for care workers will include action
on pay, training and development, career progression and
professionalism, as well as ensuring that those working in care
are recognised in the same way as those working for the NHS?
(Con)
My Lords, I echo the tribute paid by my noble friend to those
working in social care during the pandemic. Naturally we have a
huge amount of concern about those in social care during the
pandemic. However, it is amazing how much hard and committed work
those who work in social care have put into the arrangements and
how effective many of those arrangements have been. The numbers
that she cites are really impressive. I cannot make the
commitments that she asks of me right now, because the deal for
social care workers has not been written, but I completely
acknowledge the suggestions that she makes; those are very much
on the wish list and the agenda for any social care reform when
it happens.
(CB) [V]
My Lords, is the Minister familiar with the work of the Tribe
Project? It was set up by a successful digital entrepreneur and
is now being used by six local authorities to predict the needs
for care, match people with carers, and, very importantly in this
context, support professional carers in setting up independently
as microenterprises. This reduces overheads and therefore both
improves care income and reduces costs. Does he agree that this
approach could be very useful in helping with this crisis, and
will he explore it further?
(Con)
My Lords, I am extremely grateful for the noble Lord’s
recommendation. The project that he describes is incredibly
interesting. I am not aware of it today, but I will definitely
seek it out and try to find out more. I emphasise the broader
point that the noble Lord is making: fresh thinking, digital
innovation and the work of entrepreneurs to try to create new
ways of working—to pool, for instance, the efforts of teams of
people and to use platforms like the one that he describes—can
make a massive difference in the area of social care. We are very
supportive of digital entrepreneurs bringing fresh thinking to
this important area of work.
