Page 32 - Unfair To Care 2024 - Who Cares Wins

SECTION 6: THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
In January 2024, Community Integrated Care commissioned YouGov to deliver exclusive public polling, exploring the attitudes and understanding of the public towards social care. The results demonstrated considerable concern about the state of the sector, with 87% of all those surveyed (1,798 people) saying that a shortage of social care workers is a big or significant problem for society.
Of those surveyed who draw on care services themselves, or are connected to care via a family member or close friend, a shocking 80% said that staff shortages had had a negative impact on care. These impacts included:
44% SAID FAMILY OR FRIENDS TOOK ON GREATER CARING RESPONSIBILITIES
38% IDENTIFIED DISRUPTION TO THE QUALITY OF CARE RECEIVED
38% IDENTIFIED A DETERIORATION IN PHYSICAL OR MENTAL HEALTH
33%IDENTIFIED A REDUCTION IN INDEPENDENCE OR WELLBEING
33%IDENTIFIED A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE WELLBEING OF THE PERSON’S FAMILY
OR FRIENDS
27%
SAID THAT THE INDIVIDUAL SPENT MORE TIME IN HOSPITAL THAN NEEDED
These represent desperate individual and societal challenges. A full exploration of this data can be read on pages 57 - 59 of this report.
There is a wealth of data that proves the obvious link between instability in the social care workforce and a negative effect on the quality of care. In 2022, the Nuffield Trust said a growing number of care home residents are seeing their care disrupted as providers hand back contracts to local authorities or are closing down altogether, driven in many cases by persistent and severe recruitment and retention challenges.
These issues of workforce gaps are even more serious than inconvenience or sub-optimal support. They can, perhaps, lead to severe quality of life and safeguarding issues. Academic research of the evidence in OECD countries suggests that a 10% increase in turnover was associated with an increase in mortality among nursing home care residents, and a decrease in the quality of care measured by the physical environment and infection control.34
34. ‘Who Cares? Attracting and Retaining Care Workers for the Elderly’, OECD, June 2020 32