Care England, the representative body for independent providers of social care, has claimed that the reliance on agency staff has reached a point of “unsustainability” for the sector and is calling on the government to intervene.
A survey of Care England members compared the impact of the use of agency staff between April 2021 and May/June 2022. It found that 78% of respondents said they were using more or significantly more agency staff compared with April 2021.
Seventy-four percent of respondents said they had to contact multiple agencies to source agency staff, while agency rates for carers were almost twice those of non-agency carers (£19.57 an hour compared with £9.90).
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “The use of agency staff has been a bandage over more deep-rooted recruitment and retention issues, which now, expectedly, are unravelling.”
He added: “Agency is a short-term solution, which has now snowballed into a long-term fix for adult social care providers. This is not sustainable. We need a root and branch reform of how individuals enter and progress through roles within the sector.”
Care England called for equal pay rates between domestic and overseas staff. It echoed the recent report from the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, which said that additional funding for adult social care of at least £7bn was required.
Any reforms to social care, according to Care England, should come as part of a wider review including a fully funded 10-year workforce plan.
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