The Staffing Crisis Is Leaving The Basic Needs Of Many Care Home Residents In England Unmet Social Care

A wave of inspections has revealed the human impact of a worsening nationwide staffing crisis, with people left in their rooms 24 hours a day, denied showers for over a week, assaulted by fellow citizens and left to soak in their own urine . Stretched staff have described scrambling to help residents when the buzzers go off and they fear their time pressure is dangerous. Guardian analysis revealed staff shortages were identified as a key problem in three-quarters of all care homes in England, where the Care Quality Commission regulator downgraded them from ‘good’ before Covid-19 to ‘inadequate’ this the summer. An additional 10% of homes whose ranking fell had sufficient staff but failed to hire safely, either by failing to get referrals right, not conducting criminal background checks, or not adequately training staff. Staff shortages have risen by 52% in the last year to 165,000 vacancies, according to Skills for Care, and almost one in 10 social care posts in England are now vacant. Examples of comments directed at inspectors include ‘the staff are a disaster’ and ‘due to the stress and lack of support, the staff just don’t want to do it anymore’. Incidents in care homes found to have contributed to breaches of Care Act regulations due to understaffing included:

A resident at Cedar Lodge care home in Bury St Edmunds – where 23 people were left unsupervised at times – physically and verbally attacked another. Another person went missing and was only found after a member of the public accompanied them to a police station. At Osbourne Court care home in Herefordshire, staff had so little time, they used wet wipes to clean a resident and only showered and washed their hair once a week. Residents were left in soiled incontinence pads overnight at Hollies in Westcliff-on-Sea.

Workers have left to take less stressful, better-paid jobs in supermarkets, hospitality, hairdressing and factory work, care managers say. Low pay compounded by high inflation and burnout are among the most common reasons for quitting. Last week, it was reported that Health Secretary Steve Barclay will try to recruit overseas care home workers amid concerns about staff shortages this winter. ‘Inadequate’ care homes remain a small minority – just 241 homes out of 14,597 registered with the CQC – but another 2,441 ‘require improvement’. Analysis of dozens of inspection reports shows that activities are cancelled, residents are left in their rooms for hours, run out of water and wait up to 30 minutes to “pop” to be taken to the toilet. In one home, staff refused a resident’s request to be helped out of her chair because they were too busy. “We don’t have time for residents,” admitted one care worker. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. In one home, staff shortages meant one resident was not helped out of bed until 3pm and several others after 12pm, while in another, night shift workers started waking people up at 4.45am. m. “to help the day staff”. In a home with five staff to care for 25 people, one worker told the CQC: “You don’t have time to finish supporting one person before another and you have the buzz going on. You’re rushing them, it’s dangerous and it’s not fair at all.” Families said staff shortages had reached “crisis point”. “Older people pay a heavy price for these failures, as poor care robs them of their dignity, breaks their will and makes them feel unsafe in their own homes,” said Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives and Residents Association. “Older people need a lot more than empty slogans from the next prime minister to ‘fix social care’.” Last year’s announcement of social care reforms focused on containing costs for service users has been criticized for failing to address staff shortages or increase fees. In July, 88% of NHS leaders surveyed said a lack of sufficient capacity in social care had a significant or very significant impact on emergency department pressures. A separate snapshot survey of 45 independent care homes that have lost staff, carried out by the National Care Association (NCA) for the Guardian, found that more than half of homes had to reduce the time staff spend talking to residents and reduce entertainment and travel outside the home. Despite increasing demand due to an aging population, several managers said more than a quarter of their beds were unused because they did not have the staff to support them. July’s announcement of a £1,400 pay rise for many NHS nurses has led more care workers to consider switching, said Karolina Gerlich, chief executive of the Care Workers Charity, which is calling for all care workers to be paid at least £9.90 an hour and £11.05 in London. “The quality of care suffers not because the people who stay don’t work hard enough, but because only one person can do so much,” Gerlich said. “Unless we have parity of pay and conditions [with the NHS]this crisis will continue.” “We can’t compete with retail, where the pay is more attractive, especially as the cost of living starts to come down,” said Nadra Ahmed, executive chair of the NCA, which represents independent care home operators. “SME providers are struggling as many depend on local authority funding, which remains woefully inadequate. In hospitals, beds rely on funding of around £2,000 a week, but in a care setting, the same person is guaranteed around £650 or less.’ Vanessa Meggs, registered manager at Hollies, flatly denied that staff shortages were preventing adequate care. She said her residents who had learning disabilities and schizophrenia would not allow incontinence pads to be changed at night. Jamie Warnock, Cedar Lodge’s registered manager, declined to comment. Four Seasons Health Care, which runs Osbourne Court, said: “Following the pandemic, the industry has struggled to recruit staff across the country and we continue to invest in recruiting and developing talent in-house. Since the inspection in March, we have overhauled our staff management systems and installed an experienced senior manager to oversee the home, working closely with CQC and the local authority to demonstrate that staff receive training, support and leadership. “We always maintain safe staffing levels and continue to recruit new in-house team members. The care and support of our residents and colleagues remains our first priority.” Data research: Karl Martinsson

title: “The Staffing Crisis Is Leaving The Basic Needs Of Many Care Home Residents In England Unmet Social Care " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-08” author: “Annie Dahl”

A wave of inspections has revealed the human impact of a worsening nationwide staffing crisis, with people left in their rooms 24 hours a day, denied showers for over a week, assaulted by fellow citizens and left to soak in their own urine . Stretched staff have described scrambling to help residents when the buzzers go off and they fear their time pressure is dangerous. Guardian analysis revealed staff shortages were identified as a key problem in three-quarters of all care homes in England, where the Care Quality Commission regulator downgraded them from ‘good’ before Covid-19 to ‘inadequate’ this the summer. An additional 10% of homes whose ranking fell had sufficient staff but failed to hire safely, either by failing to get referrals right, not conducting criminal background checks, or not adequately training staff. Staff shortages have risen by 52% in the last year to 165,000 vacancies, according to Skills for Care, and almost one in 10 social care posts in England are now vacant. Examples of comments directed at inspectors include ‘the staff are a disaster’ and ‘due to the stress and lack of support, the staff just don’t want to do it anymore’. Incidents in care homes found to have contributed to breaches of Care Act regulations due to understaffing included:

A resident at Cedar Lodge care home in Bury St Edmunds – where 23 people were left unsupervised at times – physically and verbally attacked another. Another person went missing and was only found after a member of the public accompanied them to a police station. At Osbourne Court care home in Herefordshire, staff had so little time, they used wet wipes to clean a resident and only showered and washed their hair once a week. Residents were left in soiled incontinence pads overnight at Hollies in Westcliff-on-Sea.

Workers have left to take less stressful, better-paid jobs in supermarkets, hospitality, hairdressing and factory work, care managers say. Low pay compounded by high inflation and burnout are among the most common reasons for quitting. Last week, it was reported that Health Secretary Steve Barclay will try to recruit overseas care home workers amid concerns about staff shortages this winter. ‘Inadequate’ care homes remain a small minority – just 241 homes out of 14,597 registered with the CQC – but another 2,441 ‘require improvement’. Analysis of dozens of inspection reports shows that activities are cancelled, residents are left in their rooms for hours, run out of water and wait up to 30 minutes to “pop” to be taken to the toilet. In one home, staff refused a resident’s request to be helped out of her chair because they were too busy. “We don’t have time for residents,” admitted one care worker. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. In one home, staff shortages meant one resident was not helped out of bed until 3pm and several others after 12pm, while in another, night shift workers started waking people up at 4.45am. m. “to help the day staff”. In a home with five staff to care for 25 people, one worker told the CQC: “You don’t have time to finish supporting one person before another and you have the buzz going on. You’re rushing them, it’s dangerous and it’s not fair at all.” Families said staff shortages had reached “crisis point”. “Older people pay a heavy price for these failures, as poor care robs them of their dignity, breaks their will and makes them feel unsafe in their own homes,” said Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives and Residents Association. “Older people need a lot more than empty slogans from the next prime minister to ‘fix social care’.” Last year’s announcement of social care reforms focused on containing costs for service users has been criticized for failing to address staff shortages or increase fees. In July, 88% of NHS leaders surveyed said a lack of sufficient capacity in social care had a significant or very significant impact on emergency department pressures. A separate snapshot survey of 45 independent care homes that have lost staff, carried out by the National Care Association (NCA) for the Guardian, found that more than half of homes had to reduce the time staff spend talking to residents and reduce entertainment and travel outside the home. Despite increasing demand due to an aging population, several managers said more than a quarter of their beds were unused because they did not have the staff to support them. July’s announcement of a £1,400 pay rise for many NHS nurses has led more care workers to consider switching, said Karolina Gerlich, chief executive of the Care Workers Charity, which is calling for all care workers to be paid at least £9.90 an hour and £11.05 in London. “The quality of care suffers not because the people who stay don’t work hard enough, but because only one person can do so much,” Gerlich said. “Unless we have parity of pay and conditions [with the NHS]this crisis will continue.” “We can’t compete with retail, where the pay is more attractive, especially as the cost of living starts to come down,” said Nadra Ahmed, executive chair of the NCA, which represents independent care home operators. “SME providers are struggling as many depend on local authority funding, which remains woefully inadequate. In hospitals, beds rely on funding of around £2,000 a week, but in a care setting, the same person is guaranteed around £650 or less.’ Vanessa Meggs, registered manager at Hollies, flatly denied that staff shortages were preventing adequate care. She said her residents who had learning disabilities and schizophrenia would not allow incontinence pads to be changed at night. Jamie Warnock, Cedar Lodge’s registered manager, declined to comment. Four Seasons Health Care, which runs Osbourne Court, said: “Following the pandemic, the industry has struggled to recruit staff across the country and we continue to invest in recruiting and developing talent in-house. Since the inspection in March, we have overhauled our staff management systems and installed an experienced senior manager to oversee the home, working closely with CQC and the local authority to demonstrate that staff receive training, support and leadership. “We always maintain safe staffing levels and continue to recruit new in-house team members. The care and support of our residents and colleagues remains our first priority.” Data research: Karl Martinsson