COUNCILLOR David Walsh, Redcar and Cleveland Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Services has today (8th February 2018) given “an enthusiastic welcome” to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) which has examined standards of working conditions in the care industry.
Councillor Walsh said “The NAO are now telling the Government what every Council and every Care Provider in the country knows – that the Government are severely underfunding the degree of cash to allow local councils to come to agreements with providers which would see a big increase in often very poor rates of pay”
“In dry, statistical language they show that poor pay leads to an often female workforce feeling undervalued, and that, in turn, that leads to a huge turnover in staff, putting huge training costs on to the providers, and – in my opinion at least – heightening the risk of accidents or even abuse for vulnerable – often very elderly or disabled – clients.
“Put simply, the Government has to recognise that we have a duty to our parents, grandparents and great grandparents to see they have risk free, comfortable and fulfilled lives – whether they are receiving social care at home or in a residential setting. That means unlocking the Treasury coffers and pushing far more cash into the system to pay our care staff, who do tough work on a 24/7 basis, so as to allow them in turn to feel valued, get better training and see social care as a career – not a perceived mundane job from which many flee.”
“We have to get out of the current syndrome where cash strapped councils like ours have to get into haggling with the local care providers of the scraps thrown to us by the Government”