Domiciliary care providers across the UK are facing more and more pressure to deliver safe, high-quality care for older individuals alongside issues like workforce instability and rising demand. Effective workforce management is essential to help those live safely and independently at home as well as to support staff wellbeing.
Recent findings from the Adult Social Care Recruitment & Retention Workforce Survey highlights the scale and urgency of the obstacles organisations are facing. Completed by CQC-registered residential care locations and domiciliary care settings via the Capacity Tracker, the voluntary survey provides valuable insight into the challenges care providers are facing and how to solve them.
The Adult Social Care Workforce Survey states that domiciliary care settings find it more challenging to retain staff than residential care settings. In particular, “home (domiciliary) care worker” is the hardest role to retain, followed by “senior care worker”.
The main reasons behind this are:
Level of pay compared to other sectors - 60.7%
Access to childcare support - 34.6%
Access to funding to pay for childcare support - 30.9%
With financial issues being raised as the most common reasons behind staff turnover, care home providers need to look into ways to ease these pressures and operate more efficiently.
Software solutions, such as Log my Care, can help streamline day-to-day processes, reduce the risk of manual errors and mistakes, and improve visibility of care operations. With all the information you need in one place, including staff schedules, you can avoid costly fixes and overtime, therefore controlling wage and other unforeseen expenses.
Findings within this report state that domiciliary care settings find recruiting more challenging compared to residential care locations. The most commonly reported roles as hard to recruit for are home care workers, senior care workers, support and outreach, and registered managers.
However, other roles such as occupational therapists, nursing associates, social workers, chefs or catering and cleaners or maintenance were less challenging. If recruiting for these roles seems relatively stable, why are there more issues for recruiting others?
The Adult Social Care Workforce Survey recorded the most common reasons for increased recruitment challenges are:
Better pay outside of the care sector and within
Applications not meeting job requirements
Not holding a valid UK driving licence
There are other recruitment obstacles in domiciliary care to consider though. The aging population, for example, is continually increasing the demand for social care which is causing further operational challenges and putting strain on existing staff. This has a domino effect which leads to lack of training and development, staff burnout, and reduced job satisfaction.
Domiciliary care recruitment should immediately promote the benefits of a career in home care. This includes highlighting the value and reward of delivering care that improves the quality of care for supported individuals.
Making sure you have the right systems and software in place to support your current carers and to prepare for new care home staff is important too. Using a home care management software with a rostering feature ensures you can effectively manage rotas and recognise your capacity for delivering quality, person-centred care.
Providing and emphasising opportunities for staff development will also make your job listings more attractive and continue motivating your team which is great for morale.
Domiciliary care’s challenges with recruiting and retaining staff may be due to staff morale issues. Even though the majority of respondents reported staff morale hadn’t changed in the last year and 28.9% reported an improvement, 10.7% believed it had deteriorated.
The main impacts of poor staff morale are defined as:
28.6% reported staff not being able to or not willing to take on additional hours
15.8% reported staff wellbeing worries
As mentioned above, giving new and existing home care staff opportunities for career development is an effective way of improving staff morale. By encouraging carers to continue developing their knowledge and responsibilities, you can increase motivation, engagement and essentially, company culture and staff morale.
With 15.8% reporting staff wellbeing worries due to low staff morale and 15.6% reporting increased sickness levels, it’s important to promote a healthy work-life balance among your team. Some examples of this include encouraging regular open conversations and providing mental health resources.
Regular team meetings and feedback sessions can help you continually maintain this and identify areas for improvement. Make sure to review your goals and objectives, so you’re always aligned with your desired workplace culture and share your progress with your staff, so they feel engaged and part of your mission.
By investing in reliable home care management software, you can enhance your everyday operations which has a direct impact on both finances and morale. By improving these factors within your home care service, you will have more success retaining and recruiting staff as well as raising your company culture.
Book a demo today to see Log my Care’s platform for yourself.