Essex County Council to spend £2.5m to tackle care home staff shortage

Essex County Council said workers could currently earn more money picking pears than providing care

A council is to spend about £2.5m to help care homes tackle "urgent" staffing shortages.

Essex County Council said it would pay £100 a bed to the homes it commissioned to look after older or disabled people.

In September, the council's social care director Nick Presmeg said workers could earn more "picking pears than you can providing domiciliary care".

The council hopes the money will help care homes "deal with the current staffing difficulties".

Workers' poor pay is believed to be contributing to a turnover rate that is more than double the national average, according to the by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Presmeg told an Essex Health and Wellbeing Board meeting in September the key to stabilising the care market was to bring together hospital, community and mental health trusts, GPs and other primary care services with local authorities and other care providers under an integrated care system.

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He said: "If you work 40 hours a week you will earn £17,000 and you will have travel costs. That is not sustainable."

NHS chief executives told the BBC rising numbers of patients are stuck in hospitals in England due to a lack of care staff.

The annual Skills for Care workforce report suggests there are now more unfilled care jobs in the UK than before the pandemic.

This amounts to more than 100,000 posts with no-one to fill them, according to the report.

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