ADASS report national emergency for adult social care
More than half of councils in England are resorting to exceptional measures to ration care and support in a worsening national emergency for social care an ADASS survey has found. Despite a record increase in the hours of homecare being delivered to older people with support needs, councils say they are unable to keep up with the numbers requiring care as the Omicron variant of Covid forces growing numbers of staff to take sick leave or isolate.
Winter, the Omicron wave and pay rises in other sectors has worsened that picture. On top of more than 100,000 vacancies for care staff across England, home care agencies that employ them say that an average of 14% of their team members are off sick or isolating.