The UK Department of Health and Social Care is not doing enough to build a sustainable social care workforce, claims a report from the National Audit Office, showing staff turnover reached 27.8%, vacancy rates 6.6% (more than double the national average) and 50% of care workers received £7.50/h ($10.40) or less in 2016/17. A new study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows that NHS spending per head has fallen since 2010 while tax receipts have risen.
The UK Department of Health and Social Care is not doing enough to build a sustainable social care workforce, claims a report from the National Audit Office, showing staff turnover reached 27.8%, vacancy rates 6.6% (more than double the national average) and 50% of care workers received £7.50/h ($10.40) or less in 2016/17. There is a risk that financially-strained independent care providers, drawing up to two thirds of income from local authorities, could choose not to invest in areas where more people qualify for local authority funded care, as they are paid below the minimum price for those placements.