Covid: Care workers dreading winter amid staffing crisis

Care homes in Wales could fill 20,000 vacancies "by the end of the week" if they could find the staff, according to a leading industry figure.

Mario Kreft, chairman of Care Forum Wales, said the sector was facing its worst crisis "in living memory".

He said the care sector had been left in a "fragile state" by the pandemic, and called for staff to be paid more.

The Welsh government said it had provided £48m to help local authorities ease pressures in social care.

A care worker in north Wales said she was dreading the winter as the sector reached a "critical point".

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, Mr Kreft said that "if we could find 20,000 people quickly, they would all be in jobs by the end of the week".

He said he respected the fact Wales' health minister Eluned Morgan had apologised for mistakes made in the early stages of the pandemic, but added lessons needed to be learned to strengthen the social care sector.

"I can tell you this is the worst crisis for social care we have ever seen in living memory - it's because the sector was so fragile, so we've got to find a mechanism to ensure that people are properly rewarded.

"Social care is a vital part of the foundation economy. It's worth over £50bn in the UK each year so we shouldn't be looking at cost, we should be looking at value."

Mr Kreft said social care needed to be made equal to other health care work.

Emma Murray is the manager of At Home - Vale Senior Care, a domiciliary care service in Denbigh, Denbighshire.

She manages a team of 10 carers and said the social care sector had reached a "critical point".

"You don't want to deliver care that's unsafe. We're desperate at the moment," she said.

"We need to try and attract people into the job, give better incentives, proper contracts, bonuses and flexible working.

"I'm not looking forward to the winter after the last 18 months. We're going to be working very long hours keeping everyone warm, safe and well."

Anne Gulliver is a nurse at Dolywern, a home for 30 adults with physical disabilities in Wrexham.

She said she had picked up more shifts recently due to Covid and the shortfall in staff, which was becoming "more prevalent, post-Covid".

Ms Gulliver said "greater funding is needed" to attract more workers because "the pay is not enough".

"The impact on the residents is that they get basic care but they lose out on things like quality time that we'd spend with them."

The Welsh government said: "Ministers are committed to delivering the real living wage for social care workers early in this Senedd term.

"There are long-standing challenges in recruitment and retention in social care, which have been made worse by the pandemic.

"Our recent national recruitment campaign resulted in an increase in job applications and we will be repeating this activity."