Chancellor must use tomorrow’s budget to tackle Cumbria’s care staffing crisis - MP

Ahead of tomorrow’s budget, Cumbrian MP Tim Farron has called for urgent support on the floor of the House of Commons from the Chancellor to fix the county’s social care staffing crisis.

A report prepared for Westmorland and Furness Council said that more than a fifth (20.5%) of social work and occupational therapy roles in the area are vacant - higher that the national average of 11.6%.

The report found that a lack of affordable housing and losing workers to higher paid jobs in the NHS were factors.

The report also found a vacancy rate of 14% for care support workers, compared to the national figure of 9.9%.

Speaking during Health and Social Care Oral Questions in Parliament today, Tim said: “A fifth of the social care roles within Westmorland and Furness are currently vacant and unfilled.

“Coincidentally, that's the same proportion of beds in Morecambe Bay that are occupied by patients who are not able to get a care package and therefore leave.

“The reasons that are blindingly obvious, which is that pay and career structures are derisory for hard working, wonderful people.

“And there's a complete absence of anywhere affordable, genuinely affordable for people in those sorts of roles to enable them to live locally.

“Would the Minister agree that fixing that crisis in my community and others should be the priority for the Chancellor tomorrow - not silly electoral gimmicks?”

Responding, the Minister for Care, Helen Whately said: “Well, I will say to the honourable gentleman, I recognise the challenges in his area although nationally vacancies in social care have fallen by over 20,000.

“We are reforming adult social care careers to make care a career for the UK workforce.

“We are putting extra funding into social care - up to 8.6 billion over two years - introducing CQC assurance to make sure local authorities are doing their best on social care.

“I would encourage him to talk to his local authority and make sure that they are paying a fair rate for the care they commission.”