Crisis is care needs addressing urgently despite financial cost - The Yorkshire Post says

There are simply not enough care workers in the system to ensure loved ones are looked after. But more worryingly, the situation is deteriorating rapidly, leaving vulnerable people short when it comes to their care needs.

It is alarming that the number of vacant posts in the workforce has increased by 52 per cent to 165,000 in the last year.

There is significantly low staff retention within the industry with the attrition rate for residential carers over 31.5 per cent and 40.6 per cent for nurses.

The implication for the NHS is the never ending backlog, which will only continue to worsen, and keeping people in costly hospital beds for longer.

Without staff, the care sector, which is already teetering on the verge, would collapse. It is clear from Care England’s report released today that investment in care workers needs to be a priority for this Government.

While all eyes will be on reducing the deficit at the Autumn Statement on Thursday, the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt must not forget the vulnerable in society.

It must also be acknowledged that there won’t be a quick fix. Yes, funding is needed to enable the care sector to compete with NHS salaries. However, there also needs to be an emphasis on safeguarding the pipeline of care workers for the future.

One way this can be done is pitching careers to children at schools in the sector better. For too long they have been viewed as jobs with little to no career progression. As Andrew Vine rightly points out in his column in the pages of this newspaper today, paying down the public debt will mean little if there are people dying because they cannot get the treatment they need, or spending their twilight years in worry and discomfort due to a lack of care.