Councillors and committees

Agenda item

Adult Social Care Strategic Priorities: Workforce

Purpose of the Report:

 

This report provides the Adults and Lifelong Learning Select Committee with:

1)     information on the national, regional and Surrey challenge facing the Adult Social Care workforce;

 

2)     information on initiatives in place to support delivery of the Adult Social Care workforce strategy in Surrey, with a focus on the key areas of challenge for Surrey County Council and the independent care provider sector; and

 

3)    recommendations for the Adults and Lifelong Learning Select Committee to consider regarding the Adult Social Care workforce.

 

Minutes:

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:

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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:

 

  1. 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);
  2. 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);
  3. 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);
  4. recommends that the Council undertakes an exercise to consider the cost of recruitment against raising staff salaries (Recommendation R7/18);
  5. 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
  6. 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.

 

Supporting documents: