Tuesday 23rd August 2022
Tackling the staffing crisis in care homes
Our Chief Executive Stephen Hammersley has been speaking to the media about the big issues facing the care sector and the role Christians have to play
The front page of the Guardian, 22/8/22, carried the alarming headline: ‘Staffing crisis leaves many English care home residents’ basic needs unmet’. Our Chief Executive Stephen Hammersley was invited on to TWR Radio to respond to this story, which highlights how, due to staff shortages, some care home residents are being left alone in their rooms for 24-hours a day and denied showers for over a week.
Talking to presenter James Maidment-Fullard, Stephen said, “It really, really shouldn’t happen. I need to stress it doesn’t happen in all care homes but clearly there is a reality if you haven’t got the necessary staff you can’t provide the quality of care that’s required.”
He went on to say, “The pressures in the system are significant. There isn’t the money coming from Government to properly fund the cost of care. When that’s the situation you find that people can’t pay the wages that they’d like to pay... which means it’s really difficult to find people. You can’t deliver good care if you haven’t got good people.”
The video of Stephen’s interview is available to watch again here:
Part the solution, he said, is holding operators to account for how they use the funds they receive, highlighting how at Pilgrims’ Friend Society everything we generate goes into the quality of care we deliver. He said this must be made clear to all operators so that “proper funding for the cost of care isn’t then taken out of the system by way of excess profits.”
Looking ahead to GCSE results, due out on Thursday, the presenter asked how we can encourage those in our wider society to see care as an attractive career option. Stephen highlighted how those who work in care find it immensely rewarding. “We use the language of family, somebody who lives with us we call a ‘family member’, we do that because that’s how our staff view the people who live with us.... they think of themselves as looking after their grandparents. It’s a good thing to do because society needs it, Jesus commands it, and it can be a really rewarding of living – there is a career path.”
The interview concluded with a discussion about the Conservative leadership contest, and the lack of clear planning from the prospective candidates with regard to funding for health and social care. Stephen commented, “The striking thing to me is that we can talk about tax cuts when the reality is there isn’t enough money in the system to look after some of the most vulnerable people in society.
“Someone famous once said, the way a society looks after its most vulnerable people is a sign of the health of that society. If you take that measure, we’re not doing very well and I would have hoped that politicians of all stripes... would be making this kind of thing number one priority. How do we help the older and more vulnerable people through this difficult period?”
He also highlighted how Christians have got a role to play: “We are to love our God with everything we’ve got and we are to love our neighbours as ourselves. People around us need to both see us doing that and hear us talking about that, and to pray about that as well.”
Find out more about the rewards of working in the care sector
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