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Workforce challenges in social care have been making headlines across the UK in the past years. The growing recruitment and retention crisis in the sector is associated with chronic low pay, insecurity and low status when compared to other comparable jobs.
In recent years the gap has increasingly been plugged by attracting people from abroad, prompting the new Labour Government to pledge to develop a workforce strategy for social care. Since the election, however, their focus has been largely on health sector reform.
In Barking and Dagenham, we have been exploring how to reduce pressure on local hospitals while also supporting improvements in pay and progression in the local social care sector. Working with our local innovation partner Care City, the Council is supporting improvements in training, specialist roles and use of digital technology to improve standards of care and reduce hospital admissions in home and residential care services.
Our work with local care workers highlighted insecurity and a lack of work-life balance as other key issues affecting the workforce and limiting providers’ ability to retain existing and attract new generation of workers.
Since the pandemic, many employers have sought to attract workers by offering flexible and hybrid working patterns. However, shift-based work that cannot be done remotely often faces additional constraints in supporting flexible working patterns. In social care,
Barking and Dagenham Council have collaborated with Timewise, the UK’s leading experts on flexible working and job design, to explore how we can introduce ‘Shift- Life Balance’ for care workers. This concept, developed by Timewise, sets out a framework for quality flexible working in shift-based environments. It is based on workers’ input into their schedules; advance notice of shifts; and stability of the schedule from week-to-week. Together these priorities help employees manage their responsibilities outside of work whilst contributing to improving their well-being.
Research shows that a happier workforce is more likely to be loyal to their employer, and less recruitment means more time and money saved for the employers. This is why we are actively supporting social care providers in the borough to offer practical ways to introduce small changes to make care work more attractive leading to recruitment and retention improvements.
If you are a Social Care Provider and would like to undertake FREE training to help you develop practical ways to improve on recruitment and retention of your workers, please contact ella.lukos@lbbd.gov.uk
