By Charles Armitage, CEO of Florence – the marketplace for care homes to find qualified RGNs, RMNs and HCAs to fill their temporary shifts.
The social care staffing shambles is a sad state of affairs. Almost two years since it was due to be published, care minister Caroline Dinenage has admitted that some Green Paper reform measures may take until the “middle of the next decade” to happen. Care and nursing homes are increasingly crippled by staffing challenges, with a 2018 Skills for Care report revealing that there’s over 30% workforce churn in the adult social care sector.
It’s a worrying time for passionate nursing and care home managers as our social care system hangs in the balance. So how can they take matters into their own hands when it comes to overcoming these recruitment and retention issues?
Nurse shortage vs distribution
Workforce optimisation is an approach which has the potential to overcome some of the hurdles nursing and care home managers face. The shortage of nurses and carers is a major issue and this shouldn’t be underestimated with ongoing Brexit uncertainty.
Many nursing and care home managers point to issues with allocating shifts amongst nurses on staff within their own portfolio of homes. Many UK care homes are using temporary staff as they scramble to backfill vacant shifts. A lack of planning coupled with a reliance on traditional recruiters leaves managers suffering the consequences. Agency fees are seriously impacting their already stretched budgets and the quality and continuity of care is compromised.
Taking back control of staff set up
It’s clear to see that the effective use of tools to optimise the resources available is more important than ever. By looking at the bigger picture where a nursing or care home is one of multiple under the same group, managers can rota staff far more effectively. As a result, staff feel more valued and engaged, and are compelled to stay – removing the need to use recruitment agencies.
Of course, nursing and care home managers still find themselves needing to fill a shift at short notice. What’s more, there are many fantastic nurses who prefer to work flexibly as it fits better with their lifestyle and commitments. Turning to temporary staff has become a bit of a taboo in the sector – but it’s the high agency fees which are typically associated with it that has fuelled this negative perception. Social care can look to many other sectors for best practice examples of how flexible workers can in fact be complementary to the overall staffing picture.
New 21st century technologies
While care will always be people-driven at the heart, the adoption of new technologies can play a big role in solving staffing problems. We designed Florence to help do that – connecting care homes with nurses while driving down the high agency fees that have become all too common-place. It is now being used by nursing and care home managers as an additional tool and getting great results when it comes to securing cost-savings and more stable staff.
Since 2017, 20,000 nurses have signed up to Florence. Our data shows that in the half a million shifts worked between April 2017 and March 2019, shifts posted at least a week in advance of their start date have an 94% fill rate. 43% were filled by nursing and care home managers making use of the Direct Invite function – a feature that empowers managers to offer their shifts to nurses they have worked with before. and know to be a good fit in their organisation.
A staffing solutions suite
There can be no one size fits all approach, in order for the care sector to make its staffing model fit-for-purpose and more sustainable, nursing and care home managers need to embrace workforce optimisation and embed it in the care home psyche. This will involve harnessing new technology which can help put them back in control of their staff set up. The benefits of having these staffing solutions helps managers to take back control of recruiting and retaining highly skilled staff, as well as freeing up millions to reinvest in improving the quality and continuity of care.