Declarations of Interest:
None
Witnesses:
Mel Few,
Cabinet Member for Adults
Joanna
Klimera, Lead Consultant –
Service Partner Adult Social Care, Surrey County Council
Alison
Lawson, Practice Development Manager, Surrey County
Council
Erica
Lockhart, Chief Executive, Surrey Care Association
Alex
Mackay, Workforce Strategy and Business Support Manager, Surrey
County Council
Nick
Markwick, Director, Surrey Coalition of Disabled People
Sonya
Sellar, Area Director – Adult Social Care, Surrey County
Council
Key
points raised during the discussion:
- The report was
introduced by witnesses who advised the Committee that recruitment
and retention of adult social care staff was a national, regional
and Surrey challenge. Across the country, poor image of social care
and a perceived lack of prestige resulted in people not being
attracted into a career in social care. The NHS had a more positive
profile among the public and were perceived as offeing staff clearer career pathways. Those
considering a career in care were therefore more likely to apply
for positions within the NHS. Members heard that recruitment and
retention of staff was one of the most significant challenges in
the care sector in Surrey and that the Council had introduced a
number of initiatives to address this challenge including working
with colleagues in the NHS and Health Education Kent, Surrey and
Sussex (HEKSS). The Council was working with Surrey’s
independent care provider sector through a program of work that
aimed to support quality, competency and capacity across the
workforce. Within this program of work Surrey Care Association led
on a Surrey-wide recruitment and retention initiative. Members also
received an update on recruitment and retention challenges across
the independent care sector in Surrey. The availability of
affordable housing, perceptions of care workers as low skilled and
a lack of career progression opportunities were also harming the
capacity of independent care providers to recruit and retain
staff.
- Attention was drawn
to the significant number of social care staff working in Surrey
who were from the European Economic Area (EEA) particularly within
the Independent Care Sector and clarity was sought by the Committee
on the impact that the UK leaving the EU would have on the ability
of providers to recruit and retain staff. Members heard that the
independent care sector in Surrey had serious concerns about the
impact that it will have, particularly those that employ large
number of staff who are from the European Union (EU). The Committee
was informed that there was a shortage of local people with the
skills or inclination to become care workers which created problems
for the entirety of the sector in Surrey. Concern was expressed
that the incorrect perception of care workers as being low-skilled
meant that national organisations had failed to grasp the potential
impact that Brexit could have on the capacity of providers to
recruit and retain social care staff.
- Members expressed
concern that 36% of posts within the Council’s Reablement service were vacant and requested
clarity on how many people it would be necessary to recruit to have
a fully staffed Reablement service The
Committee heard that employees within the Reablement service were not recruited to a 36 hour
a week contract due to the need to have flexibility. Staff within
the service were, however, encouraged to join the internal bank so
that additional reablement assistants
could be brought in during busy periods. Members were further
informed that in order to help with additional winter pressures
last year, local systems funded additional home care and
reablement capacity which helped to
manage demand. Officers also highlighted that additional capacity
had been created through the introduction of the new integrated
rehabilitation positions.
- Pay was identified as
a major challenge for recruiting and retaining staff within the
social care sector and Members asked whether any work had been done
to assess recruitment costs against increasing salaries for those
positions where it was difficult to recruit and retain staff.
Officers stated that they had not done this work but that it might
be a useful exercise for the Council to do.
- Discussions took
place regarding the need to improve public perceptions of the carer
role to attract more people into the sector. Members suggested that
there should be a national strategy to improve recruitment and
retention within social care which drew on best practise from other
countries to improve public perceptions of working within the
sector. Members were advised that organisations such as the Local
Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of
Adult Social Services (ADASS) had taken the initiative to create
national strategies aimed at improving recruitment and retention
which the Council was actively contributing to. ADASS had signalled
its intention to make the social care workforce one of its top
priorities
- Officers highlighted
the need to attract and recruit more young people into the care
sector by encouraging schools to promote social care as a career
for school leavers, changing parents’ perceptions of care
worker roles and more effective use of social media.
- Attention was drawn
to the impact of recruitment and retention challenges on those in
receipt of social care support. This was particularly bad for those
who received domiciliary care where high staff turnover meant that
users often did not know the person that they were receiving social
care from, while vacancies contributed staff to arrive late for
appointments. The Committee heard that offering a competitive
salary was fundamental to the capacity of social care providers to
recruit and retain staff and that it was only by ensuring that
people felt that they were paid fairly for the job that they were
doing that the workforce challenges confronting the social care
sector would be resolved. Increasing the availability of affordable
housing within Surrey would also attract more people into the
sector.
- Discussions took
place regarding the impact on carers of looking after a someone
with a long term degenerative illness such as Dementia. Witnesses
stated that both the Council and the Independent Care Sector
offered dedicated training to staff on how to care for someone with
Dementia. Voluntary sector organisations were also contracted by
the Council to provide resources and support networks for those
looking after a loved one with Dementia.
- The Committee heard
about the Chance for Care initiative, a scheme which had been
developed by the Council to support under-represented groups into
employment within the care sector. The scheme involved working with
organisations such as Employability, Surrey Choices, the Richmond
Fellowship as well as care providers to create pre-employment
programmes that would support people from all walks of life to
become care workers. Members were informed that the aim was to have
two pre-employment programmes of up to 30 participants each
completed by the end of March 2019 with two further pre-employment
programmes to be delivered by December 2019 and that the Council
was targeting 70% of participants gaining employment within the
care sector following the conclusion of the programme in March
2020.
RESOLVED:
That the Adults and Lifelong
Learning Select Committee:
- recognises and acknowledges the work being undertaken in the
Service and with external partners such as HEKSS, Surrey Care
Association, Skills for Care and the NHS that aims to address key
challenges in the social care workforce across Surrey. The
Committee also recommends that the Council creates an action plan
for improving recruitment of young people into the adult social
care workforce by challenging poor perceptions of care work among
young people and their parents, increasing opportunities for work
experience and using social media more effectively as a recruitment
tool (Recommendation R4/18);
- recommends that the Health and Wellbeing Board reviews
opportunities to establish clear career pathways between frontline
care roles within the Council, NHS England and partner
organisations as a matter of urgency and submits the outcomes of
this review to the Select Committee ahead of its meeting on 13
February 2019 (Recommendation: R5/18);
- recommends that the Council prioritises investigating the
potential of technology to support the workforce, improve
productivity and promote residents to remain independent (Recommendation R6/18);
- recommends that the Council undertakes an exercise to consider
the cost of recruitment against raising staff salaries (Recommendation R7/18);
- notes the work underway in the Service and in partnership with
Surrey Care Association that aims to address the Council’s
key challenges in the Adult Social Care independent care provider
sector in Surrey; and
- supports and endorses the work underway within Surrey,
regionally and with other partners that aims to attract people into
the sector and improve the image of social care sector in
general.