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  • Social care sector still faces recruitment crisis

    Created: 26/07/2024
    News/Events Category: Health and Social Care
    This item will show under the following categories: Employability  

    Scotland’s social care sector still faces a recruitment crisis, despite charities increasing spending and resources.

    Almost two-thirds of third sector social care organisations increased recruitment spending but vacancy rates remain unsustainably high, according to new research published today.

    The 2023 Social Care Benchmarking Report reveals the scale of sector-wide sustainability issues, with serious recruitment, retention and staffing challenges persisting.

    The report reveals that, across 2022-23, 95% of organisations found it either ‘very difficult’ or ‘quite difficult’ to recruit frontline staff.

    The top three reasons for recruitment difficulties were

    1. Pay levels
    2. Too few applications 
    3. Local competitors such as retail

    The study also found: just over one-third of respondents (33%) reported an increase in the number of agency workers used in the last 12 months.

    Two-thirds of respondents reported they had overspent on recruitment in relation to their estimated budget. Reasons for this included: 

    • Subscriptions to recruitment websites and target advertising 
    • High turnover meaning more adverts required 
    • Costs of PVGs 
    • Increased recruitment activity given volume of vacancies and severity of recruitment difficulties 
    • Greater need to use more paid recruitment sites, particularly for HR and finance staff 
    • Readvertisement

    Audit Scotland have published a new report about Scotland's Integration Joint Boards' (IJB) performance and finances which indicates that community health and social care face rising unmet need. Key highlights from the report include: 

    • 1 in 25 people in Scotland receive social care which is expected to rise sharply as the population ages. By mid-2045, the number of people aged 65 and over is set to grow by nearly a third.
    • Where data is available, nationally there has been a general decline in performance of services and outcomes for people.
    • There's no significant evidence of the shift in the balance of care from hospitals to the community which was intended by the creation of IJBs.
    • IJB funding has decreased by £1.1 billion (nine per cent) in real terms to £11 billion in 2022/23. The funding gap is set to triple in 2023/24.
    • Vacancies are at a record high. Nearly half of services report vacancies. A quarter of staff leave jobs within their first three months. And there is continued turnover in senior leadership.

    Click here to read the report in full.




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