THE LOOP
Summon the Care Heroes Our decision to formally welcome colleagues and friends from Social Care into our Institute has been very widely welcomed by members. Not only are we all being given the opportunity to understand and learn about the opportunities and challenges which social care presents, but we are also starting to develop ideas for how the IHSCM can contribute to meeting and overcoming them.
One of the central issues for social care is workforce. The full complement of the social care workforce is 1.6 million people, but there are around 150,000 vacancies right now – nearly 10% of positions are vacant. The big question then: How do we recruit and retain talented people coming out of our schools and universities to a career in social care? Stop 3 people in the street and ask them to name well known personalities from the world of health. I know that you will get a variety of answers, but you will get immediate answers from Florence Nightingale to Sir Magdi Yacoub. Now ask them to name similar personalities from the world of social care. I suspect the reaction will be blank expression and silence. 0024
