Bridgehead | Social Care PR

💰 Anna Bawden at The Guardian reports that the Nuffield Trust and The Health Foundation have called for a specific minimum wage for social care if England is to avert a staffing crisis. They also called for national pay banding to tackle pernicious low pay in adult social care and encourage critical workers to stay in the industry. 📈 Wales and Scotland have social care minimum wages, while New Zealand, Australia and France have national pay scales for social care. England needs a further 540,000 social care posts by 2040 if the workforce is to grow in line with the increase in the number of people over 65, according to Skills for Care’s workforce strategy. 📊 Ipsos for Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation polling shows widespread support for a social care minimum wage and national pay scales. Its survey of 2,000 people in England found that 85 per cent supported implementing a pay scale, and 77 per cent endorsed a sector-specific minimum pay rate. #adultsocialcare #workforce #carepay https://lnkd.in/e3PifwP4

Just in case you missed it! 📢 We’re ecstatic to announce that Boutique Care Homes has clinched the top spot on the Social Media Power List 2024, ranking among the Top 20 Small Care Home Groups! With a remarkable 9,327 followers, we’re overjoyed and deeply grateful for the incredible support from our community. This puts us about 5,000 followers ahead of our closest competitor, highlighting the amazing engagement from all our platforms. 🌟 A special congratulations to The Burlington care home for topping the individual homes leader board with 1,100 Facebook followers! 📈🎉 We’re also excited to see Chartwell House and Brampton Manor making it into the Top 20. 🏆✨ A huge thank you to everyone who follows and supports us—you’ve made this achievement possible! 📊 Don’t miss out! Click here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e6Xg5Zut to download the full report and check out the complete rankings! Bridgehead Communications Bridgehead | Social Care PR

📈 Mithran Samuel at Community Care reports that overseas recruitment has driven a second consecutive annual increase in the size of the adult social care workforce. Skills for Care’s latest figures show that the number of filled posts in the sector grew by 70,000, from 1.64 million to 1.71 million, while the number of vacancies fell from 153,000 (9.9 per cent) to 131,000 (8.3 per cent), in the year to March 2024. 🚀 Skills for Care issued the figures on the day that it launched its 15-year strategy for the future of the adult social care workforce, developed with leaders from across the sector. This projected that the industry would need an additional 540,000 posts from 2023 to 2040, a growth of 29 per cent, because of the increase in the number of older people over that time, but that England needed to become less reliant on overseas staff because of global competition for care workers. 📊 While the sector’s vacancy rate has come down, it remains at 8.3 per cent, three times the average for the wider economy (2.8 per cent) and significantly higher than for competitor sectors, such as retail (2.4 per cent), accommodation and food (4 per cent) and the NHS (6.9 per cent), said Skills for Care. Vacancy rates fell across all parts of adult social care in 2023-24 but remained much higher in domiciliary care (11.9 per cent) than in nursing or residential homes (5 per cent). #adultsocialcare #vacancies #workforce https://lnkd.in/eqc_yNw6

📊 How does social media use vary with age? As part of our investigation into the social media use of the country's top care home groups, we first looked into the demographics behind social media use across the UK. Here's what we found: 🔝 Facebook has the largest number of users across all age ranges apart from those aged between 25 and 34, dominating particularly among those aged 45 and above. 📈 LinkedIn’s proportion of users aged 25-34, which numbers more than 18 million, is significantly higher than the other platforms - reflecting its popularity among young professionals. ⚖️ Facebook and Instagram both share a relatively similar age distribution among their users: the highest among 25-34 year olds, followed by 18-24 year olds and 35-44 year olds.  🆕 TikTok’s relatively recent entry and expansion is reflected in its younger user profile. 18- to 24-year-olds make up its largest user share, standing at more than eight million. 📊 Want to read more about what these figures mean for the social care sector? Read our Social Media Power List - Top 20 Small Care Home Groups, below: 👀 Keep an eye out for our next edition, Social Media Power List - Top 20 Mid-size Care Home Groups, coming soon! #socialcare #socialmedia #carehomes #care https://lnkd.in/e6Xg5Zut

🚩 William Wallis and Laura Hughes at the Financial Times report on the County Council Network, which represents 37 of England’s biggest local authorities. They say the government's plans to cap the amount individuals contribute towards care costs would be “impossible to implement” by October 2025, when they are due to take effect. 🔎 Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has inherited the proposals from the last Conservative administration after an election campaign in which social care was barely mentioned, despite the millions of people affected by England’s increasingly threadbare provision for the elderly and disabled. 💰 No new money had been committed to the plans since 2022, the CCN added, citing an analysis by consulting group Newton that estimated the overall cost of delivering the policy has risen to as much as £30bn over nine years. Meanwhile, the body added that councils had little chance of recruiting the staff needed to make them workable. #adultsocialcare #carecap #councils https://lnkd.in/eJH5zi2v

📱 How has social media usage changed over time? 🔎 As part of our analysis into the social media usage of the country’s major care home groups, we first explored how social media usage in the United Kingdom has changed over time. Here’s what we found: 🚀 Since 2019 TikTok has enjoyed both the largest numerical and the largest proportional increase in user numbers among the top five most-used social media platforms, increasing from 5 million active users in 2019 to more than 23 million in 2023. 📈 Each of the three largest platforms (Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) have risen by around 11 million between 2019 and 2023, with Instagram witnessing the highest proportional growth (47 per cent). 👩🏻💻 Facebook has the largest number of users across all age ranges apart from those aged 25-34. ⬆️ In the 25-34 age category, Facebook was beaten by LinkedIn, which has an estimated 18 million users in the age group. 📊 Want to read more about what these figures mean for the social care sector? Read our Social Media Power List - Top 20 Small Care Home Groups, below: 👀 Keep an eye out for our next edition, Social Media Power List - Top 20 Mid-size Care Home Groups, coming soon! #socialcare #socialmedia #carehomes #care https://lnkd.in/e6Xg5Zut

💼 Harriet Whitaker at Care Home Professional reports on the care sector’s reaction to Skills for Care's new workforce strategy, which aims to improve the quality of roles in adult social care and facilitate recruitment and retention. 💰 Jane Townson OBE, chair of The Care Provider Alliance and CEO of the Homecare Association, said: “Despite care providers’ best efforts on limited budgets, care workers are amongst the lowest paid staff in the UK, with many facing poverty and even food insecurity … We welcome the long-term vision set out in this workforce strategy and look forward to working with the new Government, Skills for Care and other care partners to develop and deliver a clear, costed long-term implementation plan.” 💡 Kathryn Smith, chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), added: “The Workforce Strategy sets out a crucial roadmap for how to tackle both the workforce shortage and the skills shortage in social care. Better pay is only one step forward. Taken together, the strategy’s recommendations have the potential to shift the dial in how we value care work.” #adultsocialcare #workforce #carepay https://lnkd.in/enkesdCc

🎆 We're pleased to formally launch our dedicated service page on our website to showcase our Crisis PR & Communications offering for care providers. Led by our expert team that includes national broadcast media journalists, it includes details on our comprehensive offering, including: ✍ Crisis Planning 📱 Crisis Handling 📰 Post Crisis Reputation Management 👇 Click on the link below to learn more: https://lnkd.in/eGbHjUXR

🚨 Michelle Ruminski at BBC News reports on Liberal Democrats councillor and manager of Chestnut Lodge in Yeovil Graham Oakes, who says that the new Labour government has just 100 days to save the sector. The cost of adult social care almost bankrupted Somerset Council earlier this year, with 70% of its £100m budget overspend due to the rising cost of the sector. 🗣️ The Liberal Democrat leader of Somerset Council, Bill Revans, said the current situation is "the cumulative impact of the broken model of local government finance and adult social care." He believes it is wrong that adult social care was funded out of a tax on people's property value in 1991. 📉 Mr Revans has introduced a number of measures to prevent his local authority from going bust, including reducing the workforce, selling off property and devolving services to town councils. But ultimately he said the government needs to bail them out and modernise the funding formula for local government. #adultsocialcare #carecrisis #localgovernment https://lnkd.in/eX4DRNGw

🚨 Robert Booth at The Guardian reports that despite cross-party support for more early care at home, town hall officials are having to allocate resources to people with more complex needs, many discharged from hospital early as part of attempts to clear NHS backlogs. One social care leader, Jane Townson OBE, the chief executive of the Homecare Association, likened the pressure of the current situation to “juggling flaming torches”. 📉 Spending aimed at preventing people’s conditions from worsening was forced down by £121m over the past year. As the complexity of cases increases, councils overspent by £586m – the highest level for at least a decade, triggering raids on dwindling reserves. There was some good news, however, with an 11% fall in the number of people awaiting care or an assessment from six months to 31 March 2024, to 418,029. 💡 Labour has pledged to create a national care service, to build closer partnerships between hospitals and the care sector to manage hospital discharge, and to explore boosting care workers’ role in basic health treatment and monitoring. However, it has not made any funding announcements and stressed it was in the early stages of a new government. Last week, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, said he would divert money from hospitals to GPs to provide “more care available closer to people’s homes”. #adultsocialcare #reform #carecrisis https://lnkd.in/efrMQdY6