Leading nursing organisations say care home workers are not paid enough

The Royal Nursing Homes Association (RNHA) has welcomed a call from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) for an increase in public funding for care home residents, ahead of Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget this week.

The key concerns raised by the RCN last week included a lack of staff training, unnecessary admissions, poorly resourced services and low staff morale; with a ‘nine-point plan’ set out by the college in which a re-evaluation of funding was the first priority, together with guidance on staffing levels, workforce planning and the regulation of healthcare assistants.

Chief executive & general secretary, Dr Peter Carter, said: ‘When nearly two in five nurses say there are not enough nurses to meet the needs of residents, then you know that this is a worrying state of affairs. Even nurses who were positive about the quality of care, felt it was delivered despite significant challenges’.

Supporting the RCN’s conclusions, the RNHA has this week looked to increase the pressure, on both central government and local authorities, to prioritise the challenges that older people face within the care system as well as those charged with looking after their well-being.

Chief executive officer Frank Ursell says: ‘The link between funding and quality is inescapable. RCN members are right to be concerned about the enormous pressures on care homes, which are expected to deliver high quality services for people with increasingly complex health and social care needs at a time when the public bodies that a fund a majority of care home places are cutting back on the resources they invest. Policy makers need to know that this scenario cannot continue indefinitely.’

Mr Ursell went on to say: ‘Too many care home staff are paid too little for the important tasks they carry out. We concur with the RCN that better remuneration and training are vital for the future of the long-term care sector. For this to happen, the government and local authorities will have to pay a higher contribution to costs.’