Somerset care home boss blames Brexit for staff shortage

A care firm director has blamed Brexit for difficulties he has experienced in recruiting staff.

Maria Care operates across North Somerset and employs about 40 staff.

Its director Barry Edwards, said it needed to recruit another 20 carers, but it had been "very difficult" finding people to fill the vacancies.

He said EU nationals used to fill many of those roles. The government has said previously employers should invest in UK workers.

In addition, a department of health and social care official said the government would provide £36bn in the next three years for health and social care across the UK.

"We are working on health and social care reform to ensure we can provide world-leading services and are committed to learning lessons from the pandemic, with a full public inquiry in the spring."

In 2016 when the EU referendum vote took place about one in three of Maria Care's applicants came from mainland Europe, Mr Edwards said.

That number had fallen since Brexit, creating an issue for recruitment, he said.

He continued: "And of course the population is aging so more and more carers are needed every year.

"It just makes life very difficult because there are about 6,500 jobs in care just in North Somerset alone.

"And there's about a 10% vacancy rate."

One of the people supported in the community is a 95-year-old man called Doug who is still able to live independently because he is visited by carers twice a day.

Unfortunately there are not enough staff to provide everyone with the same level of support.

Currently one in four beds at Southmead Hospital in Bristol is occupied by someone who could be discharged but cannot leave because there is not enough support available in the community.

NHS sources told BBC Points West that it was "virtually impossible" to provide new home care packages for people in the wider Bristol area.

North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commission Group has about 1,500 vacancies in the care sector, according to Dr Peter Brindle.

"That's an enormous number of people that we would normally have supporting people out of hospital," said Dr Brindle.

Somerset Council pays £670 per month for a residential care placement but care home owners told the BBC "that is only enough for them to pay the minimum wage for workers".

Jonathan Boyack, director of Beaufort Care Hall Home in Weston-super-Mare, said: "It has been quite an effort to fill vacancies, including those on maternity leave.

"Other nursing home are struggling to fill vacancies.

"I think it's partly to do with Brexit and I think it's partly because the economy is recovering from the pandemic."

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]