Covid: North Yorkshire County Council office staff asked to plug social care gap

Staff from departments such as highways and planning are being asked to volunteer in the council's care sector

Council workers are being asked to volunteer to take on social care roles because of staff shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

North Yorkshire County Council is asking staff in "non-critical services" such as highways and planning to help keep vulnerable people safe.

It said the plan had been drawn up amid concern the Omicron wave could lead to a 40% reduction in staff levels.

A spokesperson for Unison said the social care sector was in "crisis".

The council said volunteers will be asked to cook, clean, and help older people to eat, as well as assist them to speak to relatives on the phone or online.

It said training will be given and it will match new duties with workers' normal working patterns.

Richard Flinton, chairman of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, said: "These emergency plans will only be used if needed but will hopefully provide sufficient volunteers to get us through the Omicron wave, which may see as much as a 40% reduction in available care staff due to illness or self-isolation.

"Staff would be deployed in such circumstances on a range of different duties supporting care delivery in our elderly persons' homes and extra care settings to free up care colleagues to deliver direct care."

'Crisis levels'

Louise Wallace, North Yorkshire's director of public health, said the infection rate per 100,000 of the population for the county is 1,623, with York at 1,698, and it is fast approaching the England average of 1,769.

Urging people to get vaccinated, she said: "These rates are unprecedented, higher than any since the start of the pandemic."

The union Unison said the situation in the care sector was at "crisis levels".

Senior national officer Gavin Edwards said: "Long before the pandemic, social care had massive staff shortages.

"Now the situation is at crisis levels, with the sector struggling to operate safely and using untrained staff from other public services."