NHS and social care ‘tripping over each other’ on staffing

The NHS should help social care recruit and retain nurses, including with better pay and conditions, particularly for new service models where care staff take on more health tasks.

This is among the recommendations in the first workforce plan for adult social care, published by Skills for Care today, which also warns government must not delay promised improvements in staff pay, standards and conditions, while it waits to decide on funding reform.

The report also recommends a pay uplift for care staff which it estimates would cost between about £2bn and £6bn a year – but it suggests there would be a significant net benefit overall due to reducing turnover costs and increasing care capacity.

The report says integrated care systems should develop joint “one workforce” plans, “align terms and conditions, training and wellbeing support”, and “create the pipeline for registered nurses and nursing associates” to go into care roles.

Nursing turnover in care providers is very high and it is thought nurses often leave for NHS jobs with better pay and conditions. However, nursing staff are increasingly needed to supervise “delegated healthcare tasks” for care users with rising acuity. It is an approach government, and many systems, want to grow as part of integrated teams, such as testing and monitoring in “virtual wards”.

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Source: HSJ, 18 July 2024