16 ROUNDTABLE
have parity with everyone because we ’ re losing staff to the NHS ,’ Mr Rakhra says . Ms Brady concurs : ‘ Social care needs to sizzle ; we need to really have a strategic branding and marketing campaign .’ Ms Jacobs adds : ‘ What we need to be putting out there is that while nurses and nursing in social care do not work with machines that go “ ping ” that might be considered sexy in highly acute NHS hospitals , the nursing workforce in social care are still delivering highly complex specialist and technical work .’ She stresses that social care is the only nurse-led service – ‘ therefore , it is “ sexy ”, actually ’.
Ms Oldman explains universities are integral to helping turn around the sector ’ s image . It ’ s about ‘ culture change within universities , and working with placement officers and tutors ,’ she says . Mentors need to be developed , she suggests : if more students are encouraged to do a placement in a care home with ‘ great mentors [ they will ] want to come back when they qualify ’. Ms Jones echoes this : ‘ If we can get them early they will stay . Everyone who ’ s going through nursing training should have some time in the social care sector .’ She believes the sector needs to support universities in placing students in care homes because so far ‘ it ’ s been much easier to get them into hospitals ’. Ms Whittaker says : ‘ We need to educate the nurses that are currently in post so that they can mentor effectively new nurses coming into the sector .’
Mr Coxon says social care stakeholders must work together to improve the image . ‘ We ’ ve got to unite in a consistent , clear and confident way to promote what is good about social care nursing . It ’ s about leadership , changing the narrative and promoting the relationship-focused nature of what we do .’
Mr Bird wholeheartedly agrees : ‘ We are the people who can really make a difference . But how often do we come together to do that ? We never really come together .’ He suggests that although social care is devolved to the four nations , ‘ that doesn ’ t mean we shouldn ’ t be sharing best practice ’. Mr Holmes expresses the view that the pandemic has ‘ brought trade associations and representative organisations together ’.
Mr Holmes would like to see a visa relaxation for care homes workers , similar to the emergency six-month scheme the Government introduced in October for HGV drivers in order to counter fuel shortages and empty shop shelves . ‘ Brexit has had a huge impact on the care sector . They ’ ve tried to bring in foreign workers for the fuel crisis , I can ’ t see why they can ’ t do it for nurses .’ Ms Jones agrees : ‘ What would really help as a short-term measure is to add care workers to the shortage occupation list for a temporary period of up to two years .’
Mr Bottery reveals that the King ’ s Fund and other organisations have been trying to introduce an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill that would require the secretary of state to conduct an annual assessment of workforce planning across healthcare . ‘ I think there ’ s lots of things that need to happen at that local level or subregional level , but starting at the top [ by requiring central government to have a workforce plan ] does seem to me one small step forward ,’ he says .
The CQC ’ s report calls for a care workforce plan that considers ‘ recruitment and retention , training , pay and rewards ’. Certainly , the problem of social care and its ongoing workforce issues are a long way from being ‘ fixed ’, as Boris Johnson promised they would be on the steps of Downing Street when he became Prime Minister in July 2019 . But perhaps there is now evidence that social care is climbing higher up the political agenda . As Mr Bottery says , this now gives the sector an opportunity to bang the drum and call for an effective workforce plan .
Our panel members ’ contributions to the roundtable made it clear that , if these organisations can pull together and the Government listens , talk could certainly be turned into action and the social care nursing vacancy rate could finally start to move in the right direction .
Written by former Nursing in Practice editor and roundtable host Emily Twinch
The image of a social care nurse needs to improve – and the perception of care homes being the poor relation to hospitals debunked
References 1 CQC . The state of health care and adult social care in England 2020 / 21 . bit . ly / 3wwBeMX 2 DHSC . Statement of impact . bit . ly / 3wzBASX 3 Scottish Government . A National Care Service for Scotland : consultation . bit . ly / 3od6pcs 4 Health and Social Care Committee . Social care funding and workforce report . bit . ly / 30bQl2g nursinginpractice . com Winter 2021