Social care system ‘beginning to collapse’ as 900 carers quit every day – use the right technology to ease the burden

A report published by the BBC has found that more than 900 adult social care workers a day quit their job in England last year.

Data gathered by the charity Skills for Care, shows that in 2015-16 there were more than 1.3 million people employed in the adult social care sector in England.

Analysing the data, BBC News has found that:

• An estimated 338,520 adult social care workers left their roles in 2015-16. That is equivalent to 928 people leaving their job every day.
• 60% of those leaving a job left working in the adult social care sector altogether
• The average full-time frontline care worker earned £7.69 an hour, or £14,800 a year. The median average UK salary last year was around £27,600 for full time workers.
• One in every four social care workers was employed on a zero hours contract.
• There was an estimated shortage of 84,320 care workers, meaning around one in every 20 care roles remained vacant.

The figures show that social care providers are struggling to retain their staff, with the industry having a staff turnover rate of 27% – nearly twice the average for other professions in the UK.

The government has recently committed to spending an extra £2bn on the social care system, and allowed local authorities to raise council tax bills in order to fund social care services.

The number of people aged over 75 is expected to double by the year 2040, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Simon Hayler of GHM Care says: “Obviously these figures are very concerning and need major intervention to remedy the situation but we believe that technology can go some way to creating more time for staff to care.

“For care workers, a messaging unit enables any alerts, apps and care management systems to be directed to just one single smartphone or tablet.

“Care apps such as resident records and medication apps can also operate via the smartphone, providing real time access to your information and easy record updates via the device. Smartphones also facilitate other apps such as a door entry system, so staff can give access to team members and visitors from anywhere in the home, and a night time audio app that enables staff can check on any irregular sounds, without entering a patients’ room and disturbing them which contributes to reducing fall rates.

“Staff are truly mobile, always contactable and do not have to return to landlines, office PCs or wall boards to accept calls, find information and silence alerts. All whilst reducing the number of devices they carry to just one single smartphone or tablet, which only uses the internal WiFi to stay connected.

“Such technology can enhance the job done by carers and allow them to do more of the job they set out to do initially.”