Christian Brøndum is the CEO of Planday, a start-up that provides workforce management software to businesses working across all sectors including both hospitality and care homes. Here, he tells Care & Nursing Essentials about how software can help deal with the challenges of retaining staff…

Recently, Carers UK announced the results of a report which found that over 600 people quit their job every day to prioritise caring for older and disabled relatives. Anyone working in the care sector will be familiar with the unique stresses of caring for an elderly or disabled person. Perhaps even more stressful is the fact that often, employers fail to provide the flexibility necessary for workers to keep their jobs whilst caring for their loved ones. Whether you work in the care sector or find yourself struggling to care for relatives whilst working, the need for flexibility is a pressing issue.

Russell Pillar, director of care interiors at Spearhead Healthcare, advises how the right equipment and training makes a huge difference – to staff, residents and families…

All of us are aware that the care sector is burgeoning as our elderly population continues to rise. In fact, the Office for National Statistics has predicted a 36% growth in people aged 85+ between 2015 and 2025, up to 2million, and this is expected to lead to even higher demand for care home services.

Providing this care is of course reliant on carers, which means attracting and retaining staff is crucial to the sector. However, here there is a growing challenge, with some 110,000 vacancies in England’s adult social care sector at any given time and a 30.7% average annual staff turnover, according to Skills for Care.