Community Integrated Care Welcomes Government Recruitment Campaign

One of Britain’s biggest and most successful social care charities, Community Integrated Care, has welcomed the launch of a national campaign to encourage people to consider a career in the care sector. However, they warn that much more needs to be done to ensure that that the care sector is able to meet the demands of an aging population and support society’s most vulnerable individuals. 

The national charity has responded to the launch of the government’s Every Day is Different campaign, which aims to encourage young people to consider a career in adult social care. The Department of Health and Social Care project aims to address the 110,000 vacancies that exist in the social care sector presently.

Mark Adams, CEO of the charity that supports more than 3500 people across England and Scotland, comments:

“The social care sector faces unprecedented challenges in meeting its recruitment demands, so we certainly welcome a national campaign that highlights how rewarding a career in care can be.

However, the sector’s challenges extend far beyond awareness and recruitment alone – we face a crisis of retention and funding too. Whilst working in social is fulfilling, we cannot escape the fact that too many people working in social care receive low levels of pay for what can be an enormously challenging role.

With cuts in local authority spending, due to the challenges posed by austerity, it is increasingly difficult to attract, recruit and retain high-quality staff. It is important that central government does not overlook the fundamental issues caused by a crisis of funding, which can never be addressed by advertising alone. As a society, we need to consider how much we value and recognise those unsung heroes who care for the most vulnerable individuals in our communities.

We hope that these systemic issues are addressed in the government’s long-awaited and much-delayed green paper on Adult Social Care.”