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Care workers can earn more stacking shelves in supermarkets because of a \u201cvery broken\u201d system which has led to a chronic staff shortage. In a damning and wide-ranging interview, Professor Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, has warned Prime Minister Rishi Sunak the NHS beds crisis cannot be fixed until there is a complete rethink on social care provision.<\/p>\n
Care England is the charity which represents home care and nursing homes among other providers.<\/p>\n
Prof Green has lambasted the way the care sector continues to be treated \u201cas the Cinderella service\u201d to the NHS and claims that all attempts to integrate the two have failed.<\/p>\n
He told the Daily Express: \u201cThere is a crisis in social care which has produced a crisis in the NHS. I think what we have seen is successive governments over many years neglecting social care.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs that has been happening there have been more and more people because of demographic changes who need care and support.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it has all come together to the point that not only is the social care system I think very broken but it is now having this huge impact on the NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue of so-called \u201cbed blocking\u201d by elderly people unable to return home or into care because of a lack of support, has seen people having to wait for hours in ambulances to wait for a hospital bed to become free.<\/p>\n
The problem came despite Chancellor Jeremy Hunt laying out plans for social care in his Autumn statement and Mr Sunak making halving waiting lists by freeing up hospital beds one of his gfive pledges.<\/p>\n
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A frustrated Prof Green warned that the policy of \u201clocalism\u201d through councils needed to end and be replaced by a national one.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWhat I find incredible is they put \u00a3500 million into the delayed discharge process scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell quite clearly that didn\u2019t work as effectively as they thought it was because if they had we wouldn\u2019t have this problem in people being effectively discharged.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, they then put in another slug of money in another \u00a3250 million. But they continue the same old failed policy of letting it be done locally. Who is driving this in Whitehall?\u201d<\/p>\n
At the heart of the problems are an inability for the sector to recruit.<\/p>\n
Prof Green said that a \u201clack of preparation\u201d over Brexit had helped fuel the problem because potential staff were no longer coming from the EU.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cBut actually it is a very difficult process to recruit from overseas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, it September, the government promised they would put \u00a315 million into a fund to increase international recruitment of care worker. That was September 2022, and that money still hasn\u2019t reached us yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know where that money has gone. It was part of our plan for patients but it just hasn\u2019t materialised.\u201d<\/p>\n
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But worse was the decision by the government to ban unvaccinated people working in the care sector which led to 30,000 people leaving.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the government tends to do is instead of making decisions for the whole system, they make decisions for bits of it which then have knock on consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they did was they went and got jobs in the NHS or in home care where it wasn\u2019t a requirement to be vaccinated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still do not understand why if it was a requirement in a care home, why wouldn\u2019t it be a requirement in a hospital?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no longer a requirement but the problem was that when it was the damage was done and we lost those 30,000 people.<\/p>\n
DON’T MISS<\/strong><\/p>\n Speculation Boris could switch London constituency for new safe seat [REVEAL]<\/strong><\/p>\n Even Inspector Clouseau would see what Pink Panther fan Boris is up to [INSIGHT]<\/strong><\/p>\n POLL \u2013 Do you support Liz Truss making a political comeback? [REACT]<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe government has caused these problems but when they back away from them and say \u2018well now it is not a problem\u2019, well it is still a problem because we lost 30,000 people which we haven\u2019t replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof Green also highlighted how the care sector is unable to compete with supermarkets like Aldi and Tesco who can pay people more for stacking shelves because of the way the funding formula restricts wages for care providers.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cPeople can earn more stacking shelves in Aldi or Tesco. This is part of the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cWorking in social care is an incredibly skilled and difficult role and yet we are not paying people the amounts of money they should be paid for doing such a skilled and difficult role.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not only emotionally draining but it is also very physically demanding.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I could go and stack shelves in Aldi, what I would know is at the end of my shift I could walk away and go home and have no stress.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be worrying whether Mrs Jones died in the night or what is going to happen I have left and I know is very ill.\u201d<\/p>\n But he also believes that the other major problem is that the system \u201cobsesses over processes not outcomes\u201d.<\/p>\n In particular, home care providers are paid by the minute rather than a successful outcome.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, if you look at the way they commission social care it might be you go into Mrs Jones home, you make her a slice of toast, you get her out of bed, you wash her and you dress her and you are supposed to do that in 30 minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really interesting I had an old lady I was talking to about it and she said to me \u2018how long does it take for you to get ready in the morning?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I said, \u2018about an hour.\u2019 She said, \u2018exactly and you haven\u2019t had a stroke!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe rhetoric is about how you enable people to be as independent as possible.<\/p>\n Well, this lady said to me \u2018I probably could get my stockings on but it would take me about 30 minutes.\u2019 And you have got 30 minutes to do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe said \u2018what they have to do is they have to put my stockings on for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He added that she found the experience just \u201creinforced her disability.\u201d<\/p>\n But he also warned that attempts at integration between the care sector and NHS had often just involved changing the structure, the office and the headed paper but \u201cthey don\u2019t change the people or the culture and they get the same outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n The same staff are \u201crecycled\u201d and \u201cnothing changes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you ran a business and you were constantly changing the way you delivered that business and you were constantly failing you would say to yourself, it\u2019s obviously not structural, it\u2019s cultural or it is something about the way in which we deliver this business.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI am so old I can remember co-terminosity, joint appointments, colocation, PCTs, CCGs, I know about health and wellbeing boards. Now we have got integrated care systems.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of me is so irritated because these are not difficult and complex things. These are things which just require people t think about the outcomes and work backwards from there.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Barclay-4550531.jpg?r=1675709235326\")
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