IQ Magazine Issue 20

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iQ opinion Carefully does it... Looking after a post-Brexit Britain Negotiating Britain’s exit from the EU will be a delicate process, and this couldn’t be more true for our care industry. Following his recent appearance before the Work & Pensions Committee to highlight the the care crisis and the potential effects of Brexit, we speak to Matt Sumner, Managing Director at Midas Care Ltd to find out more. Describe the challenges facing the UK’s care industry. The key issue which adult social care faces is the ability to recruit and retain the required number of care workers to meet the increasing demand of the ageing UK population. One-third of people receiving long-term social care are aged 85 or above with the latest figures nationally showing over 873,500 receiving support from the regulated homecare sector. Lack of investment into adult social care is widely reported and accepted, however increased investment alone will not solve the issue. The role of care workers is considered unskilled and is very much undervalued by society which results in limited numbers considering this as a career option. This negative perception needs to change in order to increase numbers into the sector. How have these challenges filtered down to affect our local region? The 85+ age group within Cambridgeshire is growing particularly rapidly, forecasted to double from a figure of 10,303 in 2001 to around 21,000 in 2021, and more than doubling again by 2036 to a figure of 43,000. Currently the average number of older people waiting for a social care package in Cambridgeshire alone is 161 which would require the equivalent of a further 80 full-time care workers to meet this immediate demand. This waiting list is reducing slowly as proactive independent providers such as Midas Care work closely with the local authority to recruit and retain more workers, including workers from outside the UK. How will Brexit affect the situation? The main concern within adult social care is for the 90,000 people already employed across the UK who are from the European Economic Area (EEA). With the sector already in a state of crisis due to being unable to recruit and retain staff locally, any further pressures including the placing of restrictions on the ability to recruit from the EU will be nothing less than devastating for our most vulnerable in society. Any points-based system must consider essential workers and enable care workers without professional qualifications to enter UK employment and be trained to our standards. The application process for these workers needs to be reviewed to ensure it is not detrimental to the objective, i.e. the time it takes to apply and be accepted must be reduced drastically compared to the current working visa application system otherwise we will continue to lose talent to our European neighbours. On a more positive note, however, Brexit will provide us with opportunity to ensure tighter controls on those employed from overseas and this should be welcomed. It will allow us to ensure that staff who are recruited from outside the UK remain within the sector for which they were employed and with the company that sponsored them. What does the industry need to do to overcome these issues? There has to be more effort to increase the respect and appreciation for people who work in our industry, investment needs to be committed and a process put in place to ensure further investment reaches the front-line workers. Clear career pathways for those who start in social care to progress to nursing should also be introduced. Additional consideration also needs to be given to how care is commissioned. Midas Care pays its issue 20 | page 38
iQ opinion workers considerably above the living wage and offers benefits that stand shoulder to shoulder with other sectors, but this alone is not attracting enough workers into our industry. Further assistance is required and it must now come from central government. Local councils must receive the necessary financial backing from central government to help ensure support for those who need it can be found and that carers are properly compensated. What does the Government need to do to overcome these issues? With over 80% of frontline care workers being female, pay, conditions and benefits must improve to retain more women, however, we also need to encourage more men to enter adult social care. More steps should also be taken to show appreciation for care workers, examples might be: priority social housing, zero-rated car tax, top up of mileage allowance to the recommended 45p per mile, an increased pension allowance, free childcare available from 6:30am to enable parents to start work at 7:00am (the typical start time for those working in community care), and priority places at local schools. What is Midas Care specifically doing to tackle the current problems? As highlighted previously, one of the main challenges in our industry is attracting enough care workers to meet the demand for our services. At Midas Care we now employ over 220 staff and provide support to around 350 service users at any one time across Cambridgeshire. We have managed to more than double the size of our business in the last two years and this is primarily due to us investing heavily in the people we employ and the strategic position we have taken locally. All care workers who work for Midas Care have seen their pay increase considerably each year for the last three years. This in part has been possible due to us making savings across our business and passing these back to those we employ. New benefits were introduced last year with staff receiving additional annual leave, assistance with car expenses and their birthdays off paid, to mention a few. Midas Care has an ongoing recruitment programme with planned marketing throughout the year using various platforms. Our investment in this area continues to increase with support from a full-service media agency and a dedicated recruitment team. This winning combination ensures we target our advertising carefully and our selection process is thorough with the single objective to attract and select the very best applicants in a very competitive sector. On top of all this, we recognise our care workers as the genuine, compassionate and hardworking individuals that they are, and treat them as professionals who have trained hard to provide an amazing essential service. MORE INFORMATION Midas Care Ltd Pegasus House, Pembroke Avenue Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire CB25 9PY Tel: 01223 815220 Web: www.midas-care.co.uk issue 20 | page 39
Page 1 and 2: Issue 20: march - may
Page 5 and 6: welcome to the twentieth edition of
Page 7 and 8: iQ contents In THIS ISSUE Barry Pet
Page 9: iQ overview the estimate given by e
Page 12 and 13: iQ industry insight Chances are, th
Page 14 and 15: iQ insight Grant Thornton’s 5 Thi
Page 17 and 18: Ch, ch, ch-changes - Turn to face t
Page 19 and 20: Why 5G will change the world - and
Page 21 and 22: iQ advice wellbeing of their staff,
Page 23 and 24: iQ insight Sam Thorogood, of Tiny P
Page 25 and 26: iQ advice Myth 2 - “Our business
Page 27 and 28: iQ HR Does it matter what staff wea
Page 29 and 30: iQ advice Salary alone is no longer
Page 31 and 32: iQ advice Why do women ‘fail’ t
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Page 37: Wallis & Son Cavendish House, Cambr
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Page 45 and 46: Article by Elyssa Fagan, PR & Marke
Page 47: iQ advice Less is more A great ad h
Page 50 and 51: iQ insight Trump’s PR strategy th
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IQ Magazine Issue 20

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