The Homecare Association has published the findings from its 2024 Workforce Survey, which highlights ongoing challenges for carers, including workforce shortages, funding issues, and the need for improved commissioning practices. Nursebuddy wholeheartedly supports the Homecare Association’s commitment to contributing to improved conditions for carers and improving the future of care in the UK.
Challenges facing care workers
The Homecare Association’s 2024 Workforce Survey was conducted between 13 March and 12 April 2024, gathering responses from 307 homecare providers across the UK, delivering care to 68,000 clients and employing over 38,000 care workers. The research shows that the homecare sector continues to face many challenges, which can be split into three main areas; workforce shortages, funding issues, and commissioning practice concerns.
Workforce shortages
The Homecare Association discovered that:
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44% of care providers experienced a decrease in care worker turnover compared to the previous year, while 41% reported no change.
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48% of homecare providers stated that they cannot meet demand, with 84% citing recruitment difficulties as the primary reason.
Nursebuddy went directly to you, the care workers, to find out what issues carers are facing that have led to job dissatisfaction and workforce shortages.
At the beginning of 2024, Nursebuddy analysed over 2000 responses to its in-app Carer Wellbeing Survey, which asked domiciliary care workers to anonymously rate how they feel at the end of each shift. Managers can use these responses to monitor their care team over time to analyse trends in issues and assess areas for improvement.
The findings of the Nursebuddy survey corroborate the findings of the Homecare Association report. Nursebuddy discovered that 12% of care workers reported having’ sad’ or ‘very sad’ days, demonstrating the dissatisfaction that leads to this turnover and workforce shortages.
59% of you said these feelings were due to working conditions - waiting around, rushing through traffic, finishing late, and feeling like there isn’t enough time to get everything done are huge sources of stress. 19% of carers cited the reason for bad days as being long and tiring, feeling exhausted after late finishes, 13% to feeling rushed, stressed and overwhelmed, 10% due to rota issues such as last minute changes, 7% to waiting time and working long days on low pay, 6% to too much travelling and 5% to feeling unsupported by managers and other carers.
Funding
The Homecare Association reported that:
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Carers are typically being paid £12 per hour, with 6% of you being paid £15 per hour or more. In The Thrive Guide, Nursebuddy took a a deep dive into Skills for Care’s workforce data to try to identify the factors that affect a homecare organisation’s ability to thrive. The data showed that staff turnover improves once care workers are paid more than 60p above the National Living Wage (NLW).
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25% of care providers stated that current fee rates are too low to offer competitive pay rates for UK-based workers.
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65% of respondents reported offering zero-hour contracts, with 54% offering guaranteed hours contracts. The Nursebuddy data showcased that those of you on zero hour contracts are much more likely to leave your jobs, with the turnover rate for carers on zero hour contracts at 33.9%, compared to 26.9% for those who aren’t.
Fair pay does not just include being paid a fair working wage, there are also many issues reported by carers which are directly and indirectly linked to wage shortages. As part of the Carer Wellbeing Survey, many of you reported that factors that indirectly affect pay are car troubles, fewer paid hours than expected due to late finishes, time travelling, or last minute rota changes.
Often, long gaps between visits are not credited as waiting time and are therefore unpaid. Statistics from UNISON in December 2023 found that 75% of domiciliary care staff are not paid for the time it takes you to travel between appointments. If you suffer from a car breakdown or flat tire, you may be late to or miss a visit completely, leading to lost wages on top of having to pay for car maintenance. Direct costs like parking tickets and filling up petrol also cut into your wages and are not subsidised.
Commissioning issues must be resolved to ensure that care workers are paid fairly. The government must provide adequate and ring-fenced funding to local authorities to enable them to pay a fair price for care, and mandate public bodies to pay minimum fee rates for homecare to enable care providers to offer fair pay and working conditions.
Support for care workers
When providers were asked what they believed would have the most positive effect on their ability to recruit and retain employees, Nursebuddy discovered that 47% selected options based on valuing staff and a positive organisational culture.
The top factors were:
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Supportive team/positive culture (26%)
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A competitive employment offer (21%)
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Staff being able to work hours around other commitments/lifestyle (19%).
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Personal values of staff or sense of vocation (19%)
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Other factors included job security (4%), training opportunities (2%), and potential for career development within the organisation (2%).
One of the ways that care workers can access training is through NACAS memberships. This exclusive membership offers numerous benefits, including discounts, training, and access to exclusive content. NACAS provides 600+ free and discounted training courses designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of care workers. This can help you not only in your current role but can also open up opportunities for career advancement.
In summary
Both the research from the Homecare Association and Nursebuddy presents the challenges faced by care workers which lead to job dissatisfaction, high levels of turnover and difficulty with workforce retention in the industry as a whole. In our care report, Nursebuddy aims to directly showcase the voices of care workers, to raise awareness of the real, daily impact of the challenges of the role and what needs to change to improve the satisfaction and support of the workforce.
