Social Care News

Social care workers' morale and motivation 'lowest it has ever been'

Social care workers' morale and motivation 'lowest it has ever been' 

Mario Kreft, Care Forum Wales' chair, has said that Care Forum Wales members across the board have reported problems with staff morale and motivation.

He said: “What we are picking up from our members and others is a level of morale and motivation that is probably the lowest that it has ever been.

"We urgently need a whole sector solution, we need more nurses in Wales both in the NHS and in the independent sector."

Mr Kreft was speaking after it emerged that two homes in the Bridgend area, Abergarw Manor in Brynmenyn and Southmead Grange in South Cornelly, were to close.

The owner of the homes, HC-One, blamed "a national shortage of nursing staff" for the "very difficult decision" to close the homes.

• BBC News: Care homes face nurse recruitment 'crisis' claims forum
  

Mr Kreft said: "Our strategy should be interlinked so that we can work in partnership with our colleagues in health boards, with Welsh Government, to ensure that we’re attracting the right people into social care."

He continued: "The commissioning process has to to reflect the people that we need to employ and retain.

"We have to make working in domiciliary and residential care homes a profession with status, recognising its value to the community and that it underpins our National Health Service," he added.