Late last Friday the government published a consultation on proposals to restrict the movement of care workers in England if they work in more than one health and care setting. The proposals if adopted would prevent those providing nursing or personal care in care and nursing homes from working in two different care settings within a 14-day period unless this would result in unsafe staffing levels in a particular service.
Vic Rayner, Executive Director of the National Care Forum (NCF) says:
“The rationale behind the proposals is understandable – based on trying to reduce the chances of asymptomatic staff inadvertently spreading the virus, but the proposal is ill thought through and will be hard to implement in the current circumstances.
“Many providers have already limited the movement of their staff but this does not appear to have been acknowledged by the proposal. In the midst of the very significant staffing and financial pressures around delivering care in the midst of a pandemic, managers will be expected to negotiate with staff around critical issues which could have potentially devastating impacts on an individual’s personal circumstance.
“Rather than seeking to regulate to reduce staff movement at short notice in the middle of a pandemic, the approach needs to be more supportive and practical. Our research with members shows that the Infection Control Fund, which has to date been utilised to minimise staff movement, vastly underestimates the costs that providers already incur, before adding on a meaningful compensatory mechanism to address shortfalls in workers’ incomes. Simply legislating against staff movement does nothing to solve the fundamental issues of recruitment, retention, high turnover rates and competition from other sectors.”
NCF is encouraging all care providers to make their voices heard in this consultation so that the government understands what is possible to implement in the middle of a pandemic and the resources needed to do it. The consultation closes at 12pm on Monday 23 November and can be completed online here.
ENDS
Note to Editors:
- The National Care Forum brings together over 130 of the UK’s leading social care charities, representing large numbers of care providers, offering thousands of services across the country, which are not for profit and always at the heart of community provision. Collectively, these charities deliver more than £2 billion of social care support to more than 167,000 people in 9,200 settings. The NCF membership body collectively employs more than 95,500 colleagues.
- More information is available on the National Care Forum at www.nationalcareforum.org.uk. @NCFCareForum @vicrayner @NCF_Liz
- For enquiries, please contact Edna Petzen (edna.petzen@nationalcareforum.org.uk).
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