A recent report has highlighted the fact that in large areas of the UK local authorities are failing to pay care providers enough to provide a service that can break even, putting huge pressure on their ability to recruit and retain staff.
It means, despite losing staff faster than they can be replaced, companies are unable to raise wages, says the Homecare Association.
Low wages and feeling undervalued are key factors leading care staff to quit, says the report.
Councils say they do not have enough money to pay companies more.
The Homecare Association, which represents some 2,340 care providers, calculates the true minimum cost of providing an hour of homecare in the UK is £21.43.
To read the full story visit the BBC website.
There will be “a tsunami” of people without the care they need this winter unless staff shortages are tackled, England’s care watchdog is warning.
Social care staff are “exhausted and depleted,” says Care Quality Commission (CQC) chief executive, Ian Trenholm.
In a report, the CQC urges immediate work to address the problem of rising numbers of unfilled care sector jobs.
On Thursday, the government announced an extra £162.5m to boost the adult social care workforce.
This is in addition to £5.4bn earmarked for social care over the next three years from the government’s health and social care levy, which already includes £500m to be spent on the workforce.
The CQC welcomes the money but has a warning: “It must be used to enable new ways of working that recognise the interdependency of all health and care settings, not just to prop up existing approaches and to plug demand in acute care.”
To view the full story visit the BBC Website
Paralympian runner Jonnie Peacock, who was awarded an MBE in 2013, has revealed how he built a “solid foundation of resilience over the years” and says “this is what has kept me going”.
For him determination is key, with his parents embedding this in him from an early age.
As a child, living with his parents and sister just outside of Cambridgeshire, he had dreamt of being a footballer but he faced an obstacle that would change the course of his life forever. In 1985, at the age of five, Jonnie contracted meningitis which saw him lose a leg.
At school Jonnie threw himself into everything, playing all sports and not holding back. In the hospital that fitted his prosthetic leg he found out about disability sport and was directed to a Paralympic sports talent day. In 2012 Jonnie won a gold medal, crowned a Paralympian at only nineteen years of age.
He is now working with Qube Learning, which runs apprenticeships and traineeships, to help inspire others to actively change their lives despite any disadvantages they may have in life.
He says: “I have built a solid foundation of resilience over the years, and I believe this is what has kept me going. When I was still at studying, I struggled to walk when my stump was sore so my mum would help carry me to school, I didn’t want to give in.
