Dorset facing a social care crisis
Around 20% of social care needs in Dorset are not being met due to staff shortages
Extra funding from the Government may be the only way of propping up Dorset’s stretched social care sector this winter.
Services are said to be facing a crisis with around 220 current vacancies while at the same time the local population is getting older and needing care – coinciding with more of the working age population leaving the workforce.
The immediate effect has been that around 20 per cent of local care needs are now not being met, potentially putting further strain on an already stretched NHS.
Dorset Council’s deputy leader, Cllr Peter Wharf, now also the portfolio holder for adult social care, admits he had no short-term solutions and has warned that the county could be facing a hard and difficult winter.
“At the moment there are significant pressures and some people are struggling to get their needs met…it is a national problem, but it doesn’t make it any better,” he said.
Cllr Wharf says the only hope may be persuading the Government, through local MPs, that services are at crisis point and the only immediate answer is a further injection of cash from Westminster.
He says the council are working on a number of schemes to support private care providers and doing what it can to help obtain visas for oversees workers while at the same time trying to persuade local people that working in care is a rewarding career choice.
This week a letter asking for further financial support, signed by 33 local councils in the region including Dorset, will be delivered to the Government.
Senior officer Steve Beaver told councillors that the authority was now struggling to meet service demand throughout adult social care. He said while staff in the sector had continue to maintain services in difficult circumstances throughout Covid, many were now struggling: “That resilience and fortitude is beginning to wane,” he said.
Mr Beaver said that while there were just enough beds locally in care home places for routine admissions there was a shortage of higher need beds and that many services had now switched to care at home where there were now often problems in finding enough staff to fill shifts.
The difficulties have been made worse by some social care staff not being double-jabbed and having to be moved away from front-line duties.
Owermoigne councillor Nick Ireland told Monday’s people and health scrutiny committee that the whole system needed fundamental reform. He said while the council and others were working hard to plug the gaps in the system there was little evidence of the underlying issues being tackled by the Government.
He warned that the pressure on Dorset was likely to increase with planned pay rises for staff in neighbouring counties as they also struggled to retain staff.