Local elections 2021: Care industry 'needs support to keep staff'

The care industry is known for having a high turnover of staff and it has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Jacqualine Moyo owns a home care service and says more focus needs to be put on training people and continuing skill development in the care industry. How would the candidates for Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough help this struggling sector?

The mayor has no direct control over health and social care, however, the mayor does have responsibility for skills and can work with local businesses to understand where there might be shortages of qualified labour.

Ms Moyo, who runs Peterborough-based Ness M Care Services, says the care industry has had its struggles in the past year and she wants to see more done to attract and retain staff through skills and training opportunities.

She said: "I think the passion that comes from it [care work] has kept us going.

"The people we support and their level of dependence on us has kept us going throughout the Covid situation, which has been extremely difficult."

"It's a sector that struggles to attract and retain staff but at the same time it's a sector which is very dependent on people."

Research by Skills to Care estimates that 7.9% of the roles in adult social care were vacant in 2019-20 in the East of England, equal to approximately 12,500 posts.

Ms Moyo believes "investing and training people into skills that will support them in the care industry" could help.

The candidates for mayor, listed in alphabetical order, set out their plans below.

Nik Johnson, Labour

"I have spent the last 30 years focusing on working across organisations. I have spent my time trying to make sure social care works collaboratively within health care, both with community services and in the acute services," he says.

"We are an ageing population and if we've been taught something over the whole of the last year in Covid, it is that we need to be able to look after each other.

"The people who have done all that hard work in all those care homes and who have done outreach work and have put themselves at risk, they need to be rewarded financially, but they also need to be respected in the long term."

James Palmer, Conservative

"The mayor has no responsibilities over health. It is very clear that the way social care is administered is through the county councils," says Mr Palmer, who was elected as the Cambs and Peterborough Combined Authority's first mayor when it was created in 2017.

"The mayor can work alongside the councils and city council of Peterborough, but they control adult social care and children and young people services.

"But what the mayor can do, when it comes to helping out, is to create opportunities for people working in the sector for retraining and training opportunities, because it is a sector that always struggles with staff."

Aidan Van de Weyer, Liberal Democrat

"The work of people in social care and other community groups has been fantastic over the last year," says Mr Van de Weyer, who is also a member of South Cambridgeshire District Council.

"Other organisations have also learnt a lot, the council I run has learnt a lot about how we can support communities and support care-givers.

"The mayor has a really important leadership role in this, bringing people together, bringing the organisations together. There is no direct responsibility for health care, but I think we can cement the good close working relationships we've learnt in the last year."

A special programme featuring all three candidates - called A Mayor for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough - was broadcast on Sunday on BBC One and is available on the BBC iPlayer.