South Lanarkshire Council is looking for extra staff to support care services as winter approaches.
At the Social Work Resources Committee meeting on September 7, an outline of the progress of the modernisation of the 'care at home' service was outlined as well as plans to recruit more staff to help support the service.
The 'care at home' service plays a vital role in achieving the goal of supporting people to live independently and safely at home.
'Care at home' staff currently undertake around 25,000 visits to service users per week, and the service currently employs almost 1000 staff with this expected to rise around 1200 following additional ringfenced Scottish Government investment.
The service has had a programme of modernisation to allow it to respond better to service demand and to the increasingly complex needs of service users.
In June last year, the Social Work Resources Committee approved proposals for the redesign of 'care at home' services and for the use of the Carer’s Fund to establish a number of new posts to enhance assessment and care management.
These plans included the establishment of scheduling and response teams that operate between 6.30am and 11pm every day to ensure support to staff and service users is provided.
There’s also been a redesign of coordination roles within the service to reflect changing responsibilities with a focus on staff support and quality assurance.
The modernisation of the 'care at home' service is progressing despite the significant pressures faced within the service as a result of the pandemic and is scheduled for completion by the end of this financial year.
The availability of frontline social care staff continues to present challenges across Scotland. In South Lanarkshire, the service has prioritised staff recruitment and has embarked on an extensive recruitment process.
Despite this, challenges continue to exist and attracting new staff remains a key priority and a potential risk to the service.
Due to this, a further six full time posts and one part time post has been approved by the Social Work Committee on a permanent basis.
The roles needed are one operations manager, one project governance coordinator, one project officer, one mobile team leader, one performance and support officer, one alert team leader and one part time team leader for the Clydesdale area.
The financial implications of the proposals amount to £358,886 – £63,473 of which is currently available within the 'care at home' staffing budget.
As a result of the new staff, the requirement for ongoing care will be reduced and therefore enable monies to be diverted to fund the cost of these posts.
It is proposed that £295,411 is transferred from the external 'care at home' budget to fund these posts.
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