Brexit – a perfect storm for social care
Stephen Wilson, CEO and Co-Founder of recruitment platform Novacare, discusses how Brexit will add to an already critical situation within the social care sector – and why women should be better recognised for their role within the care industry. The Office for National Statistics reports female unemployment fell this year to 3.7% the lowest since records began in 1971. Unsurprising when women account for the vast majority of the 1.75 million people who work in Social Care across the UK. As a sector social care contributes £38.5 billion to the economy in England alone. A figure which continues to rise as the size of the population over 65 requiring support grows. Yet it is a sector with over 110,000 care vacancies, and a turnover of more than 390,000 (30.7%) per year. This crisis in recruiting impacts those waiting to be discharged from hospital and those at home awaiting a care package. So how will Brexit add to an already critical situation within social care? The Department of Health itself estimates that there could be 28,000 fewer workers in the social care sector in England five years after leaving the EU. It also warns that this could have a knock-on effect on women’s participation in the workforce as they move out of paid employment to take on informal care roles. The result of this would be hundreds of thousands of hours’ worth of lost earnings, mainly for women. Given over 104,000 EU nationals and 129,000 non-EU nationals work within the sector, we can’t be complaisant about the impact Brexit and a points-based immigration policy will have. With the UK government’s announcement on 19 August that European Union (EU) “free movement” rules will end immediately if there is a ‘No-Deal’ Brexit on 31 October 2019, new immigration restrictions become more likely. The immediate impact for employers would include: The risk to the social care sector is that visas may only apply to skilled workers with a salary in excess of £30,000. The average salary for a full-time social care worker in England is £9.10 per hour, less than £19,000 per annum. Currently, the most needed group of workers would fall outside of the proposed immigration salary threshold. All of these factors build up into the perfect storm for recruitment into the social care workforce. Conclusion Gender shouldn’t be a factor when it comes to employment, however social care remains predominately delivered by women. This traditionally low paid sector deserves better recognition and reward for the work its staff do. They improve the quality of peoples’ lives day in, day out. Early morning, late at night, 365 days a year in all weather, social care staff make sure the most vulnerable in society are safe. Isn’t it time we worked together to improve their lives?
Winter Funding: is £240 too little, too late?
Health secretary Matt Hancock recently announced that an emergency £240million fund would be ploughed into social care to free up beds this winter. Siva Anandaciva, Chief Analyst at The King’s Fund, responded, saying, “After a punishing summer of heatwaves and ever-increasing demands on services, the NHS is heading for another tough winter. “Widespread and growing nursing shortages now risk becoming a national emergency and are symptomatic of a long-term failure in workforce planning, which has been exacerbated by the impact of Brexit and short-sighted immigration policies. “The right to start treatment within 18 weeks is enshrined in the NHS Constitution, yet three and half thousand people have now been on hospital waiting lists for more than a year and waiting lists stand at their highest levels in over a decade. This is unacceptable and the review of waiting time targets currently underway must ensure that patients not treated within initial time limits are protected from lengthy waits for treatment. “With hospitals and other NHS providers once again forecasting a significant end-of-year deficit, it is clear that the NHS finance regime is broken, with financial targets routinely missed and huge financial problems in some NHS organisations offset by surpluses in others. The new funding settlement announced by the Government is very welcome, but it is not a panacea for the pressures facing the NHS. Today’s report is a reminder that the forthcoming NHS long-term plan must focus on reform and investment in new ways of delivering services otherwise the NHS will be trapped in a perpetual winter crisis.“
What a No Deal Brexit would mean for social care
Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care, has submitted evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s inquiry into the impact of a ‘no deal Brexit’ on health and social care. Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England says: “The prospect of a No-Deal Brexit only accentuates the fragility within the social care sector. It magnifies potential uncertainties in the recruitment and retention of foreign workers upon which many independent community care providers depend, currently the sector includes 233,000 employees that have foreign nationality. With vacancy rates running at around 90,000 at any one time, this dependency is significantly important to the sustainability of the sector – particularly as it is predicted that by 2035 an extra 650,000 social care jobs will be required to keep pace with rising demand”. “Not withstanding the potential impact of Brexit upon the sustainability of social care, the sector is already at crisis point. Relentless pressures on funding, increases in the level and complexity of need and widespread challenges in the retention and recruitment of the workforce required are compounding at an exponential rate thus endangering the continuity of care of thousands of vulnerable people. The Government must address the immediate funding gap, estimated at£2.5bn by 2020, alongside putting in place arrangements that secure access to this highly skilled and valued workforce as an integral part of its Brexit negotiations”. Care England has produced a briefing for its members regarding Brexit. The main focus is the recruitment and retention of foreign workers, including Registered Nurses, with particular reference to areas of the country that may be most at risk; for example in the South East of England 23% of the social care workforce is non-British, with regional unemployment at 3.7% compared with the North East of England which has only a 4% dependency on non-British social care workforce and has an unemployment rate of 4.4%. Martin Green continues: “In a sector characterised by low pay and negative stereotyping we are worried that a No Deal Brexit would cut off, or restrict, the foreign workers that we need and depend upon”.
