In response to the Homecare Association report ‘Voices of Homecare: Workforce’, ADASS President Jess McGregor said:

“This report highlights the ongoing challenge of securing enough care staff for our population’s growing social care needs, including supporting people to live independently at home. We were pleased to see the Government recently announce the Fair Pay Agreement to help improve the pay, terms and conditions of care workers who do a brilliant job day in and day out of supporting millions of older people and those with disabilities. While we welcome the £500mn, as part of the £4bn announced during the Spend Review, and councils will be delighted to pass this on to providers to uplift front line care workers pay, this is unlikely to be sufficient, and we look forward to working with the Government to grow this amount over time.

“We need more than fair pay alone though – we need a genuine career structure, proper training and development to retain care workers and support them to do a brilliant job of delivering care and support to millions of people. This has never been needed more as the route to recruit international care workers has now been closed.

“This report also shows care workers are increasingly supporting people at home through the delivery of delegated healthcare tasks, often without adequate funding, training, or clinical governance. Our latest annual survey shows three quarters (74%) of Directors said they have seen an increase in the delegated healthcare tasks being carried out by social care staff. Delegation can work well, meaning people receive more seamless and coordinated care and support, but it must be consciously commissioned by local councils in partnership with providers – it cannot be left to happen on an ad hoc basis without adequate finances, safeguards, training and support in place.”