Care Dorset launches academy to tackle staff shortages in the care sector
The extra training will allow them to offer nurse-led care for more people
A Dorset care organisation is planning to launch its own Care Academy as a way of tackling an on-going shortage of care staff.
Care Dorset, which has around a thousand staff at more than 20 sites across the county, has told councillors that extra training will allow it to offer nurse-led care to people in greater need than it is currently able to assist.
The business operates independently but is wholly owned by Dorset Council which commissions care services from it, including residential and day facilities.
Managing director Mr Chris Best told councillors that its new five-year plan aims to increase revenue by 60per cent over the period and provide additional services, including new buildings.
Mr Best told councillors that the Care Dorset Academy would be capable of awarding recognised industry qualifications and will introduce nurse-led care, allowing it to offer care and support to people with a greater severity of need than Care Dorset is currently able to accommodate.
The five-year Strategy – named Your Life, Your Way – was presented in outline to Dorset Council at a shareholders meeting at County Hall on Monday.
Said Mr Chris: “Care Dorset was created in October 2022 to provide and improve adult social care for the people of Dorset, taking over from previous supplies, Tricuro.
“We know most people want to live healthy, independent lives in their own homes. Our new five-year Strategy aims to deliver that.
“It’s fundamentally about expanding our organisation to support more people – especially those with learning disabilities, autism or mental illness.
“Growing our market share enables us to achieve greater economies of scale and bring improved efficiencies.
“Supporting more people provides the opportunity for Care Dorset to enable more people to live their lives, their way.”
At the last shareholders meeting in October, councillors were told that the organisation was unlikely to report a profit this financial year, with the projected budget almost £900,000 adrift, most of it attributed to delays in completing and setting up the St Martin’s extra care housing scheme in Gillingham which has since opened offering 55 extra care places.
Other recent developments have included the the closure of Sidney Gale House in Bridport with the site to be redeveloped to become what is likely to be Dorset’s first purpose-built reablement service.
Dorset Council’s own projections indicate that by 2035 the county could require an extra 2,384 adult care beds to accommodate increased demand – a 67 per cent hike on current provision.
Mr Best says part of the five year plan is on keeping people active and out of residential care homes for as long as they are able with new models of care such as Extra Care and Reablement services.
He said: “There’s great scope to use technology for the benefit of the people we support, enabling less intrusive ways of receiving care as well as maintaining independence.
“In our engagement with the people we support and their families we heard a heartfelt desire for meaningful activities, and for us to create opportunities for the people we support to engage with their communities.
“We will commission the building of at least three new services from which to do that.
“And we’ll be delivering care and support to more people with more complex needs in settings which are increasingly nurse-led and fit for purpose.”