Staffing crisis leaves many English care home residents’ basic needs unmet
Thousands of vulnerable people are suffering inadequate care as severe staffing shortages in previously good care homes push operators to break rules and put residents at risk.
A wave of inspections has revealed the human impact of a worsening nationwide staffing crisis, with people being left in their rooms 24 hours a day, denied showers for over a week, enduring assaults from fellow residents, and left soaking in their own urine.
Stretched staff have described scrambling to help residents with buzzers going off and fear the squeeze on their time is dangerous.
Analysis by the Guardian revealed that staff shortages were identified as a key problem in three-quarters of all the care homes in England where the Care Quality Commission regulator had cut their rating from “good” before Covid-19 to “inadequate” this summer.
A further 10% of homes whose rankings slumped had enough staff, but failed to recruit safely, either not taking references properly, carrying out criminal records checks, or training staff adequately.
Staff shortages rose by 52% in the last year to 165,000 vacancies, according to Skills for Care, and close to one in 10 social care posts in England are now vacant. Examples of comments care workers made to inspectors include “staffing is a disaster” and “because of how intense it’s been and lack of support, staff just don’t want to do it any more”.
The current average pay in independent care homes in England is £9.01. Starbucks baristas earn over £10 an hour, and Amazon warehouse workers earn a basic wage of £10-£12.
Incidents in care homes found to have contributed to breaches of Care Act regulations because of staffing shortages included:
A resident at Cedar Lodge care home in Bury St Edmunds – where at times 23
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