Fife council wrestling with shortage of home care staff

Home care staff are having to be bussed in to some areas of North-East Fife due to a shortage of local workers.
Despite the recession, Fife Council is struggling to recruit carers to tend to elderly people in their own homes.

This has led to waiting lists for home care and delays for people ready to leave hospital but waiting for care packages to be put in place.

Officers have launched a recruitment drive in Dundee to tempt potential workers south of the Tay, and temporary staff have at times been used to bridge the gaps.

Social work chief Stephen Moore said North-East Fife was traditionally a difficult recruitment ground for home carers.

“We do struggle and have gone to Dundee to recruit staff through the Department of Work and Pensions,” he said.

“We do continue to struggle and will continue to struggle, just because the terms and conditions and pay are better in the private sector. There are no rewards other than the reward of caring for people, and I don’t see any short-term solution.

“The private sector can’t take the slack either.”

Mr Moore said the people with the skills to become carers in other areas of Fife were instead choosing jobs in the tourism 
industry in the North East as the pay was better.

“They are working in hotels and bars and things like that,” he said. “We are bussing staff in at times to St Andrews. That’s not entirely satisfactory, but we do what we can.

“The good news is there is employment in that area, simply because people choose not to work in the social care area.”

Tay Bridgehead councillor Tim Brett said the problem of recruitment was a long-standing one.

The Liberal Democrat group leader, who was the social work spokesman under the previous administration, said the role of a carer was rewarding but challenging.

“For many years now there have been difficulties in recruiting home carers in North-East Fife, and it’s something I grappled with when I was chairman of social work,” he said.

“A number of initiatives were undertaken to try to recruit home carers.

“North-East Fife is geographically relatively sparsely populated and therefore home carers would need a car to do the job.”

Adding that the recruitment difficulties surprised him, Mr Brett said: “We have high levels of unemployment at the moment, so I don’t know why this is.

“The social work service has to keep working on this.”

He added: “I’m not sure what the current situation is, but until May last year it meant there were waiting lists, which meant people were waiting several weeks.

“That could also mean people couldn’t get out of hospital because they needed a home care package. There are knock-on effects all through the system.”

Agnes Gray, resources manager with social work services, said: “Historically there has been a difficulty in recruiting home care staff in North-East Fife,

“Largely the workforce seeks employment in the hotel and tourist industry. There is a significant challenge in recruiting people to undertake assessments, and this from time to time has an impact on our ability to respond to increasing demands.”

She added: “On these occasions we have worked closely with our colleagues in economic development and Jobcentres to undertake targeted recruitment.

“Support to vulnerable people is our highest priority and we will always target our resources to those in greatest need ensuring that any risk is minimised, regardless of where they are.”