Care residents are 'absolutely not' being failed, says top Lincs care figure
The county's staff vacancy rate is around 7%
A leading Lincolnshire social care figure has insisted residents are ‘absolutely not’ being failed in the county, despite widespread staff vacancies in the sector.
Melanie Weatherley MBE, the chair of Lincolnshire Care Association representing independent care providers across the county, told Lincs FM that the workforce had been left ‘depleted’ due to the pressures of the pandemic.
Staff vacancies are around 7% in Lincolnshire – although substantial, this is still far below some other counties, where the vacancy rate is above 15%.
Ms Weatherley urged the government to ‘get a move on’ with recruiting health and social care workers.
She says that staff shortfalls are being compensating when ‘our managers are going out onto the shop floor or under the home care rounds to make sure that the care that's delivered is the best quality possible.
‘The trouble is that if all of your management team is delivering hands on care, nobody is doing the thinking.
‘The current residents and service users are not being failed, but if as a system we don't do something about it, very soon into the future, people could be failed because there won't be anyone there to deliver the care.
‘We have to fix it now before we get to the stage where anyone is being failed.’
Report: Social care workforce is 'exhausted and depleted'
Ms Weatherley was speaking to Lincs FM after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – England’s independent health and social care regulator – published its annual State of Care report.
The report found the stresses of the pandemic have left the health and social care workforce ‘exhausted and … depleted’.
It added that ‘the negative impact of working under this sustained pressure of the pandemic, including anxiety, stress and burnout, cannot be underestimated.’
Nevertheless, it suggests that when people did access the care they needed, ‘they were often positive about that care.’
Ms Weatherley says the CQC report is both ‘supportive’ and ‘quite concerning’, adding that it makes a strong case for the case workforce needing more support.
‘The main thing is our staff are absolutely on their knees.
‘They have done an amazing job since the pandemic started, but they are tired. They are depleted. Some people have decided that care is just too stressful for them.’
She adds: ‘Sadly, we have lost a handful of people to Covid - we did have some deaths, but also because people were so ill during Covid that they can no longer continue to work. And there is not the workforce coming forward to replace them.’
'It's ok not to be ok'
Ms Weatherley says support resources are available to the workforce, but ‘often care workers don't want to take up the opportunity to look after their own health and well being.
‘They don't see that as important, and that's probably one of the messages I'd really like to get across: it’s ok not to be ok.
‘Your own health and wellbeing is important, because if you're not well, you can't provide support to your residence and your service users.
‘But our workforce put themselves very much at the bottom of the list of priorities - that's why they do the job I suppose.’