Age UK response to new restrictions on care workers

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said:

"Of course, it's logical to try to ensure care workers do not work in more than one care home but most operators are between a rock and hard place on this. There is a massive level of vacancies within social care - 112,000 - and a horrifying 30% annual rate of churn - so the challenge is how they can provide good care in a way that is consistent with infection control. Consider the impact too of having staff members needing to self-isolate because, say, a family member contracts the virus, and you can see how hard it is for care homes to remain adequately staffed.

"Social care is, par excellence, a people business and it is simply not possible to deliver good care without sufficient numbers of committed, well trained care workers. The pandemic has demonstrated the imperative of strengthening the social care workforce and the Government should do everything it can to help care homes to manage their workforce problems at this very stressful time. Support is likely to be more effective than challenge in this respect and we doubt that introducing a regime that providers perceive as punitive is likely to help.