Appearing on The Leaders Council Podcast, Angela Nall, executive director of Pathfinders Specialist and Complex Care in Nottinghamshire, shared her view that the government’s Health and Care Act 2022 will not prove sufficient to address workforce issues in social care.
Sitting down with host, Scott Challinor, Angela elaborated on her viewpoint that a lack of understanding among ministers as to how the social care sector functions, was part of the reasoning behind the Act not stretching far enough in terms of its impact.
She said: “I think personally, they missed a trick. I think they’ve done that because the people putting the document together, I don’t believe, have a fundamental understanding of how the social care sector works.
“For instance, given what we do as a care home, it’s assumed that we simply care for the elderly. In fact, all people who come to Pathfinders for care are of working age. Most are in their thirties, forties, and fifties, and so they are very far from being elderly and have very different needs.”
Furthermore, Angela believes that not enough value has been placed on the role of the carer by those in power, and this has given rise to a general perception that care is a low-skilled profession; a perception which she dismissed as being wide of the mark.
“To look after our people, our carers need to be extremely skilled in what they do, there is no such thing as an unskilled carer. Yet, there isn’t enough value placed upon the role, it’s got such a low status when it is actually a highly skilled job. Legislation has not taken into account the extent of this.”
Another issue highlighted by Angela was the evident lack of robust training structures and career pathways, which she felt presented the industry as one which was not conducive to career progression, thereby hampering recruitment.
“Within our business, initial training lasts for six months and this is why we place such a heavy emphasis on staff retention. Training is both expensive and time-consuming and we cannot afford to invest so much into someone’s development only to lose them. Training is not one-size fits all across the industry and staff need to be continuously developing.
“But not all care providers do provide good quality training or have clear career pathways. We provide career pathways for everyone in our business, even the receptionists. We recruit for attitude and train for skills, so we can get people who’ve worked in other sectors and turn them into quality carers.”
In order to change public opinion for the industry’s benefit, Angela explained that awareness needed to be raised in schools about the career opportunities in the sector, but also warned that the industry needed to make itself a more lucrative option for potential new carers.
“To alter perception, I think change needs to start in school. Social care needs to be presented as a true career option. However, there are still other barriers to overcome to help achieve that and a lot of it boils down to money. We are a real living wage employer, but that starts at £9.90 per hour whereas a skilled carer could easily be earning £11 per hour or more. One of the reasons carers feel so undervalued is because they aren’t paid enough for what they do, and the funding isn’t there to allow the industry to do that.”
Listen to Angela Nall’s full interview on The Leaders Council Podcast below.
Image: health secretary, Sajid Javid, taken from Wikimedia Commons
