Social care 'catastrophe' predicted by homes boss

Headingley Hall is just one of the care homes struggling to retain staff

Social care is a big issue for many at the upcoming general election.

Millions of people in the UK receive help from carers and associated services every year.

All the parties have plans to try and improve the sector, which employs more than 1.5m people.

BBC Yorkshire spoke to people at one care home about their perceptions of what is needed and put those points to candidates standing in the 4 July poll.

The director

Peter Hopkinson, managing director at Westward Care, said social care was in crisis

Getting staff is one of Peter Hopkinson's key concerns.

The managing director at Westward Care in Leeds recently had to close down a nursing service at one of its homes - Pennington Court - after being unable to find enough staff.

He added: "We were putting adverts in at probably £5,000 a year more than the equivalent NHS nurse, but still didn't get any applicants."

Mr Hopkinson said social care needed to be made a priority by the next government to avoid a "national catastrophe".

The care worker

Angela Schofield said some staff had started in the morning and left the job before lunchtime

Care assistant Angela Schofield has worked at Headingley Hall, which is part of the Westward Care group, for 13 years.

She said: “I normally get here around 06:30 and we finish our roles at 21:00.

"We are constantly working overtime.

"The amount of staff that come and go, it’s tremendous.

"We have had staff who have come in and gone before lunchtime.

“We are not valued like we should be valued.

"It always feels as though I’m at the bottom of the pile, so to speak."

The resident

Mary, 100, is a resident at Headingley Hall in Leeds

Margaret Paris's mother Mary, who is 100, is a resident at Headingley Hall.

Mrs Paris said her mum was in hospital and should have been discharged into a community care home, but there were no spaces available.

"She was deteriorating in hospital because of lack of stimulation," she said.

"We had to take matters into our own hands and she has been moved to where she is now, which is an expensive residential home.

"If she didn’t have the funds I know I wouldn’t like the sort of places that social services would be prepared to pay for.

"I have seen them, and no thank you."

She added: "It’s not a problem that is going to go away, and any party I thought was likely to solve it would definitely get my vote.“

What do the parties say?

Labour candidate for Leeds South Hilary Benn said it was vital to introduce fair pay for staff.

"Fair pay is the first thing; secondly, we should put more effort into trying to keep people in their own homes if we possibly can, because that is better for people."

Conservative candidate for Leeds East, Sam Firth, said: "We are going to introduce the £86,000 lifetime cap on care costs for individuals and families.

"That is going to be critical in terms of making sure we look to the future and support people."

George Sykes, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Leeds South, said the party would introduce a higher minimum wage for carers.

"We are going to increase it by £2 an hour on top of the minimum wage, to recognise the vital importance of care workers in our society."

The Green Party has said it would invest £20bn into health and social care.

Leeds South candidate Ed Carlisle said the money would come from "things like taxing the super wealthy, scrapping Trident, scrapping road building schemes".

He added: "We are also committed to increasing the minimum wage to incentivise people coming into this industry."

Full list of candidates for Leeds South

• Muhammad Azeem - Workers Party of Britain

• Hilary Benn - Labour

• Janet Bickerdike - Christian Peoples Alliance

• Ed Carlisle - Green

• Karen Cooksley - Conservative

• Niko Omilana - Independent

• George Sykes - Liberal Democrat

• Daniel Whetstone - Social Democratic Party