(North Shropshire) (LD)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require the Secretary
of State to publish and implement a Care Workers Employment
Strategy, with the aim of improving the recruitment and retention
of care workers; to establish an independent National Care
Workers Council with responsibility for setting professional
standards for care workers, for establishing a system of
professional qualifications and accreditation for care workers,
and for advising the Government on those matters; to require the
Secretary of State to commission an independent assessment of the
support available to unpaid carers, including financial support
and employment rights; and for connected purposes.
All of us will have had experience of the importance of care,
whether we have had to care for a loved one ourselves or whether
outside care has been provided to a relative or friend. I am sure
that colleagues on both sides of the House will agree that caring
is not only a skilled job but one in which compassion, respect,
friendship and companionship are also hugely important. Before I
dive into the detail of the Bill, I want to provide a small
example of how important those elements can be.
Recently I was speaking to residents in North Shropshire and I
came to a bungalow whose door was answered by a care worker. She
explained that the lady who lived there was having her lunch but
that she would help her to fill in my survey about local issues.
A few minutes later I turned to see the care worker running up
the street after me. “Joan would love to see you herself,” she
said. I gladly went back to talk to Joan, who did not get many
visitors and was grateful for the interaction. There was no need
for that care worker to have literally gone the extra mile when
she was doubtless under time pressure to get to the next
resident, but it made all the difference to Joan’s day. Care is
hugely important to the most vulnerable individuals in our
society, yet there is consensus that the care sector is in need
of urgent attention.
The Government have promised to sort out social care on numerous
occasions, but we have seen little in the way of a coherent
strategy to tackle the multiple issues faced by the sector. At
the top of the list of issues is the workforce shortage. In only
the last few years, the number of vacancies has skyrocketed to
165,000. Not only is this a vast number but the situation is
getting worse. More than one in 10 posts are now empty, with the
vacancy rate having risen from 7% to 10.7% between 2021 and 2022.
Furthermore, the Health and Social Care Committee anticipates
that a further 490,000 care workers will be needed by the early
part of the next decade. To make matters worse, the Care Quality
Commission has reported that over 87% of care providers
responding to its latest “State of Care” report in 2022 said that
they were experiencing recruitment challenges.
This workforce shortage is one of the factors driving the crisis
engulfing A&E departments and ambulance services. The
inability of hospitals to discharge patients into care, whether
at home or in a care home, is preventing the critically ill from
being admitted to hospital or handed over from their ambulance,
with truly disastrous consequences for those in immediate and
urgent need. But the Government have still not brought forward
their NHS workforce plan and there is little chance that it will
include details for the care workforce, despite the sector being
critical to the healthy functioning of the NHS. On three
occasions during the passage of the Health and Care Act 2022 the
Government voted against amendments that would have required the
Secretary of State to publish independently verified assessments
of current and future workforce numbers every two years. They
have not even engaged with the scale of the problem.
A care workers employment strategy should be the top priority of
the Government—and not just any strategy but a workable one that
is fit for the future and can be appropriately adapted as
circumstances change, not just press-released and shelved with
little impact. That means it has to identify where and why
shortages exist as well as the areas of greatest need, and how to
resolve those shortages. It needs to identify the causes of poor
retention and slow recruitment, and it needs to be brave enough
to tackle the importance of pay in a sector that is currently
fishing in the same pool as retail and hospitality for new
recruits. Caring is a skilled job and it should be paid
appropriately. That is why the Liberal Democrats have suggested
the introduction of a carers’ minimum wage. By increasing the
minimum wage by £2 for care workers and introducing a care
workers employment strategy, we can take a bold and realistic
step to deal with the chronic staffing shortages that we
face.
My Bill goes on to recommend the implementation of an independent
national care workers council, free from political interference,
which would establish not only minimum professional standards of
care throughout the country but a system for the professional
qualification and accreditation of care workers. This would
provide public recognition of the importance of the care worker’s
role and provide career development as skill and experience
increases. I hope that by advising on minimum professional
standards and the training needed to achieve them, such a council
would provide the leadership needed to improve the varying
standards of care we see across the country.
Back in the autumn of 2022, I observed a 12-hour ambulance shift
with a crew in Shropshire, and I was struck by the variation in
the circumstances of the patients we visited. One elderly
gentleman was able to remain at home despite having been struck
by covid. The ambulance crew were confident that his needs would
be taken care of and that the carer would ring back if his
condition deteriorated. However, a second gentleman’s carers had
done everything required of them and taken the time to call an
ambulance because he was poorly, but they were so short of time
that they were unable to stay. This immense time pressure on care
workers, and the fact that they are often not paid for driving
between clients, means that some residents are living poorer
quality lives than they otherwise might. Minimum professional
standards would help to alleviate the time pressures on carers.
It would also reduce the burnout and frustration that care
workers must feel when they are forced to rush through their work
faster than they would like.
It is also important to recognise that care is not a
one-size-fits-all profession and that different skills and
experience can have huge value in the sector. Recently I met the
chief executive officer of a not-for-profit organisation
providing care for adults with learning disabilities. The care
workers in that organisation often provide lifelong care to
individuals with high levels of need, and their excellent skills
are in ever-decreasing supply. Reward and recognition for the
people who provide this care are critical to ensuring that such
organisations can continue to provide their unique service.
I cannot express enough the importance of dealing with the crisis
in the care sector. The Care Quality Commission’s report shows
that more than a quarter of care homes reporting workforce
pressures say that they are no longer actively admitting new
residents. Local care providers in my constituency have indicated
that cost and retention pressures could force them to hand back
care packages to the council, which would then have to find
alternatives in an emergency. This would be costly, inefficient
and have the potential to compromise the quality of care
provided. As our population ages, this is an unacceptable state.
A strategy is needed to resolve it right now.
The army of unpaid carers often slip under the radar. These
people have often had to scale back or give up their paid
employment, in many cases because there is not another available
or affordable service. High-quality care is valuable, and unpaid
carers contribute a huge amount to the economy, which is
unrecognised. Carers UK’s latest estimate is that carers save the
economy nearly £193 billion a year, which is a huge amount that
should not go unrecognised.
My Bill would require the Secretary of State to commission an
independent assessment of the support available to all unpaid
carers, including financial support, as well as the employment
rights needed to enable them to care. It is essential that the
Government receive the best possible information and advice to
ensure that those who care in our society are not forced to
suffer themselves, and an independent assessment would provide
this.
It is essential to remember why this matters. At the heart of the
care system are people in need of assistance. Whether they are
elderly, in poor health or have lifelong disabilities, those
requiring care should have the right to live in dignity, knowing
that their needs will be met sensitively, either by a loved one
or by a caring professional. We can no longer ignore the crisis
engulfing the care sector and the impact that a shortage of care
workers and well-supported unpaid carers will have on those most
in need.
As our care needs increase by the year, we must act now to ensure
that we continue to be able to provide the high-quality care that
everyone in our society deserves.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That , , , , , , , , , , and present the Bill.
accordingly presented the
Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 24
November, and to be printed (Bill 298).
