Council sets aside £1million to take on more social care staff

Aberdeen City Council is to recruit dozens of personal carers to meet the growing demand for care at home.

Most home care (about 75%) is purchased by the council from private care-at-home providers, but they have become increasingly unable to meet the council’s demand for home care and the private sector is sometimes unable or unwilling to take on more complex cases.

Members of the Urgent Business Committee unanimously agreed to the transfer of £1million between Social Care and Wellbeing budgets for the establishment of 35 FTE personal carer posts and three FTE team leader posts. This will allow the provision of an extra 1,100 personal care hours per week.

Councillors also unanimously agreed that 15 FTE support workers and two senior support workers should be recruited for the on-house provision of the learning disabilities service.

Committee convener and Council leader Barney Crockett said: “By taking on more carers and support staff and by providing more of our services in-house, the council will be able to provide greater consistency and continuity of care and support to those who need it.

“We will be monitoring the situation given the recruitment challenges we have faced in the past, to ensure that we can fill this gap satisfactorily.