"It costs four times as much for us to recruit carers now."
The boss of a Northumberland home care company told ChronicleLive how the sector's staffing crisis was hitting hard - and how he had urged care minister Gillian Keegan to properly fund the sector when she visited the Mayfields Community Centre in Cramlington.
Guy Kirk - who runs Home Instead South East Northumberland - said recruitment was "incredibly tough", local authorities needed more money to fund care, and that the minister had been "well aware of the challenge" the sector faces.
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The visit comes after the Government unveiled its plans to help people "receive better, more joined-up care" in the health and care sector - as outlined in a White Paper published in February.
Mr Kirk said he had been impressed by Ms Keegan's willingness to listen.
"What I liked was that she clearly wanted to find out as much as possible about the care sector and about mental health which are the two areas she is responsible for," he said. "She wanted to listen even though she already has quite a lot of experience of the care sector - but she wanted to find out what it's like on the ground for us.
"I told her about why we believe at Home Instead that everyone has the right to non-rushed, bespoke care. But the challenge is that the local authority funding - which they're given by Government - is not enough. Local authority budgets are nowhere near what they would need to be for the kind of care that we think everyone deserves."
The care boss added that there were "various theories" around the care sector about why recruitment had become so difficult.
But he said: "Recruitment at the moment is extremely difficult, not just for us but across the country. And no-one really knows why this is, though I have seen various views.
"Some have suggested that for those people aged 55 or 60 who might have been on furlough they might just have thought 'I'm not going to go back.'
"Often they are the people you are looking for - they're the ones with experience. There's also a theory that the Government has created a lot of jobs around Covid.
"What we have to do is to continue to try to be the best employer we can be, to pay fairly and to make sure that we have the best rates we can get.
"It costs four times as much for us to recruit now than it did pre-pandemic. We are having to work so much harder. And then when we do hire people we are trying incredibly hard to look after them."
Mr Kirk - who runs the Home Instead franchise which covers areas like Blyth - added that he welcomed the promises from Government about transforming the care sector and said: "If we are looking to change the care sector we need for people like Ms Keegan - and the public more generally - to understand that high quality care might be expensive but it's actually incredibly good value for money.
"If you provide support for someone to stay in their home, you can look after them - if they have a fall you might not need them to go to hospital. And going into hospital is both bad for Government finances, but also more importantly it's bad for the person themselves."
Mr Kirk has also paid tribute to his staff - and carers around the country for "stepping up" and doing an "amazing job" during the pandemic. He added: "Our care professionals have been outstanding. It was an incredibly frightening time but it's amazing how the care staff - along with those around the country - stepped up. It was inspiring really. It was very tough but we were so careful to follow the rules to the letter."
Speaking about the pressures facing social care and recruitment, Ms Keegan has said that the recent White Paper sees the Government has "committed to at least £500 million to develop and support the workforce over the next three years" as well as "committing £1.4 billion over the next three years to support local authorities in moving towards paying providers a fair cost of care".
DHSC is also continuing its national recruitment campaign "Made With Care". As part of that, the minister said: "We are investing record amounts into social care making this an exciting time to join the workforce and play an important role in helping to develop a world-leading social care system."
At the beginning of February, as part of a £54.1bn package of funding announced by Levelling Up minister Michael Gove, the Government said there would be an extra £1bn given to local councils to fund social care in the coming financial year.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid also said bringing forward social care reform and "joining up" the health and care sectors was essential, adding: "Better integration is vital to stop people falling into the gaps between health and social care.
"Ensuring our health and care systems work in unison will mean we can support hardworking staff, provide better care to patients and deliver value for the taxpayer."
