The Climbing Care Crisis

As the UK grapples with the cost-of-living crisis, the care sector sinks deeper into a crisis of its own.

Earlier this month, the Health Foundation released a report that revealed vacancies in adult social care jobs have hit their highest point on record - and continue to climb. 

It comes as no surprise that care providers are facing huge recruitment challenges. Despite playing such a vital role in society, carers are among the lowest paid workers in the country. Even before the cost-of-living crisis, one in five residential care workers in the UK were living in poverty, compared to one in eight of all workers. But recent analysis showed that now over a quarter of residential care workers in the UK lived in, or were on the brink of, poverty due to low pay.

The Marillac Neurological Care Centre, which employs over 200 staff, is a charity providing specialist treatment for people who have complex neurological conditions. Their CEO, Paul Dixon, says the lack of government support and significant increases in costs leaves them with limited options:

“We are looking at what we can do to support our staff to make sure they have the ability to get through the winter. We gave our lowest paid staff an unprecedented pay rise this year, which has increased their pay by 17% over the past two years,” Paul said. 

However, as an employer, Paul is still concerned how his staff will cope:

“We have put out a survey to our carers to get their opinion on whether they would prefer food parcels or a free meal on duty,” he added.

While many organisations providing vital care services find themselves on the brink of collapse, there seems to be little clarity on how the government plans to reduce pressures on the sector. The government’s lack of sufficient investment in the workforce has left care providers struggling to compete with other employers.

“Carers work incredibly hard in what can be back-breaking work. When you look at that, along with the fact that we are now competing with, not only the NHS and its pension, but supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s who are paying more, we’re having to be as innovative as we can to recruit new staff into physically and emotionally demanding positions providing personal care,” Paul said.

Earlier this month, former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng scrapped the Health and Social Care levy, which came into effect in April this year to help contribute to the struggling sector. Whilst there was scepticism about how much would actually reach the social care services, the move further reduces potential income to shore up the struggling sector.

“I do worry about social and health care in general, especially when you look at not-for-profit charity providers like us. There’s going to be an awful lot of smaller providers out there running a 10 or 12 bed care unit that are not going to be able to sustain any increase at all,” Paul said.

“The government needs to make sure social care becomes a protected sector, otherwise a lot of places will go under. And if they go under, you've got an awful lot of vulnerable people in residential care who are going to be displaced from what is effectively their home. It’s quite a dangerous place to be in,” he added.