Latest News from Everycare
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has urged the government to remove all charges to immigration visas and set a minimum wage of £10.50 an hour for care workers in England to help alleviate the impact of workforce challenges.
The MAC report, which briefs ministers on immigration policy has put forward 19 recommendations, which it says will alleviate the challenges facing the social care sector, including recruitment and retention.
The National Care Forum (NCF) the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) and the Homecare Association have welcomed the report and said this “reiterates some very important issues” which includes issues of underfunding and how this continues to “exacerbate challenges to providers”, high staff vacancy and turnover rates and the “impact of low pay and the care workforce challenges”.
‘We know the true value of care work is much more’
Vic Rayner, chief executive of the NCF and member of the social care expert advisory for the MAC said: “While a focus on the minimum pay for care workers in this report is a helpful contribution to this issue, the NCF has consistently called for an independent pay review for social care, which involves employers, commissioners, and employee representatives with a view to implementing a new career-based pay and reward structure which is comparable with the NHS and equivalent sectors and fully-funded by central government.”
The VODG is also urging the government to “embrace” the committee’s recommendations to fully fund a rate of social care pay above the National Living Wage.
Dr Rhidian Hughes, chief executive of VODG said: “At present, charities are prevented from improving pay rates because funding passed down by central government to local authorities falls woefully insufficient.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has announced that all care home visitors, apart from those giving personal care, will no longer have to test for Covid and tests will continue to be free for staff and residents, according to the government’s ‘Living with Covid’ guidance.
Free testing for the public ended on 1 April but all those living and working in ‘high risk settings’ such as care home, hospices and home care organisations will still receive free lateral flow testing.
Free testing needed for visitors ‘to safely visit’ residents
The majority of visitors to adult social care settings including care homes will not be required to take a test according to the new guidance.
Only the ‘small number of care home visitors who provide personal care’, known as essential caregivers, still need to test. They will be able to get free tests but will not need to test more than twice a week.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said the government has “forgotten” that visitors to care homes need testing so they can “safely visit their relatives”.
He said: “This must be funded by the government.”
A high street chemist has revealed it will charge £17 for a pack of four lateral flow tests.
Read the full story at homecare.co.uk
Following predictions the NHS would be hit by a loss of over 70,000 frontline staff and a fifth of the home care workforce would quit if the mandate was introduced in April, Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced yesterday evening to the House of Commons that the government is removing the legal requirement for all health and social care staff in England to be double jabbed against COVID-19.
The mandate for care home staff to have the jab came into force on 11 November and led to thousands of care workers being sacked.
Mr Javid said: “While vaccination remains our very best line of defence against COVID-19, I believe it is no longer proportionate to require Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment through statute.
“So, Madam Deputy Speaker, today I am announcing that we will launch a consultation on ending Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment in health and all social care settings.
“I have always been clear that our rules must remain proportionate and balanced – and of course, should we see another dramatic change in the virus, it would be responsible to review this policy again.”
Mr Javid explained that the vaccine mandate was put in place because of the severity of the Delta variant, but now with the Omicron variant being the dominant variant and less severe plus the success of the vaccine rollout, he says it is only right the policy was reviewed.
For the full story visit homecare.co.uk
Up to a quarter of the home care workers will be made to look for other jobs if Covid-19 vaccination becomes mandatory, a new survey reveals.
A six-week consultation was launched on 9 September to decide whether Covid and flu vaccinations should be made compulsory for home care workers and the NHS workforce, but according to the latest survey published by the Homecare Association, it reveals almost a quarter of home care providers thought they would lose over 25 per cent of their staff, “creating a risk” that home care will not be available for “tens of thousands of older and disabled people” who need support in their own home.
The survey also reported around a third of providers would expect to lose under 10 per cent of their workforce, while 40 per cent reported that they would lose between 10 and 24 per cent of their staff. Over 90 per cent thought it was certain or likely that recruitment will become harder if this comes into force and over 80 per cent thought they would need to dismiss staff as a result.
Dr Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association said: “While progress is being made where currently 83.2 per cent of home care workers have had the first dose of vaccine, and 73.7 per cent the second dose.
“We understand people who use services, and their families expect care workers to be vaccinated. Vaccination is also desirable to help protect the health and safety of care workers themselves.
“The Homecare Association strongly supports vaccination of the homecare workforce and we lobbied hard, right from the beginning, to ensure it was as easy as possible for home care workers to access vaccinations.”
The the full story visit the homecare.co.uk website
