North Yorkshire care boss calls for government help with recruitment

There are fears quality of social care is suffering because staff are burnt out

Author: Karen LiuPublished 24th Aug 2021

There are fears the quality of social care in North Yorkshire is suffering because staff are burnt out.

We have been speaking to Mike Padgham, the man in charge of Independent Care Group, which runs a number of care homes across the county.

He is joining calls for government to reform social care to help with hiring and retaining workers.

Mike said:

"We've sort of exhausted and keep telling the government this, it needs to listen and act quickly because the winter's coming up and we're struggling to survive. People deserve better care than they're getting because staff are burnt out, flat out during the pandemic and they need some relief.

"Before the pandemic came along, social care was always in a sort of recruitment challenge really. Before the pandemic, 120,000 vacancies in England at any one day, so it's tough now. The challenge has become 'can they have enough staff to keep the services oeprating in this county?' And that's the challenge for us all.

"It's a very skilled job but unfortunately the pay doesn't match. Brexit does play a part, a lot of workers are from overseas and it's very difficult to recruit new people and the fact is that we've got vaccinations and coming up soon, it's going to be compulsory for social care and unfortunately some staff won't have the vaccine.

"My own personal opinion is that we need to provide it by increasing taxation, so it's free at the point on need, such as the health service and it needs a minimal level such as what nurses get for social care staff because they deserve it. If we get those right then recruitment will improve."

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