Pay nurses more to stabilise social care, charity says

Struggling sector needs to be able to recruit staff – the Health Foundation

The pay of social care staff, including nurses, must be increased to help stabilise the sector in England, a move that would require extra government spending of £1 billion next financial year, a health charity says in a report.

Nurses working in social care earn 7% less than their NHS colleagues, with the gap set to grow under the NHS pay deal, the Health Foundation charity says.

Increasing numbers of people are unable to access social care, providers of care are at risk of collapse, and individuals and families continue to suffer unnecessarily, it says.

Call to align social care staff pay with NHS

The Health Foundation wants the government to spend an extra £1 billion in the year from April 2020 to help align social care staff pay with that of NHS counterparts and address the 110,000 job vacancies in the sector.

This would need to grow year-on-year to an additional £4.4 billion to existing budgets by 2023-24, it says.

The charity wants individuals’ lifetime care costs to be capped at £46,000, which it said would alleviate people’s fears of losing their homes and assets to pay for care. This would cost £3.1 billion a year, it says.

Health Foundation assistant director for health and social care sustainability Charles Tallack said: ‘The current social care system in England is a shameful policy failure which is compounding the suffering of some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

‘The new government must start addressing this systematic failure by stabilising the market, boosting staff pay and putting in place reforms that limit the costs for those most in need.’

‘Governments have ducked the need for reform’

Mr Tallack, one of the report’s authors, said social care reform has been sidelined too often. ‘Successive governments have ducked the need for reform for too long, but a solution is within reach.

‘An additional £7.5 billion by 2023-24 is relatively affordable, representing less than 1% of total government spending.’

The charity argued that increased taxation would be an obvious route towards a fairer and more generous system.

Responding to the report, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘We have given local authorities access to nearly £4 billion more dedicated funding for adult social care this year, and a further £410 million is available for adults and children’s services.

‘The prime minister is committed to fixing the social care system and we will outline proposals in due course.’

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Nurse safety: boosting numbers 'helps protect against aggression or harassment'

Staff safety found to increase when registered nurse numbers are higher than the clinical requirement

The risk of staff experiencing aggression from patients in mental health settings is influenced by how many registered nurses are on shift, a new study has revealed.  

Researchers from Birmingham City University (BCU) reviewed incidents of patient aggression in inpatient settings, recorded between September 2014 and March 2017, by an NHS mental healthcare provider in England that offers acute and community services. The data were culled from 10 locations (totalling 51 wards) and across the early, late and night shifts. 

They found that fewer incidents were reported by all staff groups when nurse numbers were higher than the clinical requirement, which is calculated according to the condition and number of patients admitted to wards.

Over the time period, 6,520 incidents of aggression by patients towards staff members were reported, affecting 12,138 members of staff.   

A total of 1,762 events characterised as ‘inappropriate behaviour’ were logged, affecting 4,058 members of staff.

There were 298 events classed as ‘sexual incidents’ reported, affecting 493 members of staff.

The study authors analysed the data and found that, on aggregate, each additional registered nurse on the early and late shifts led to a 9% decrease in adverse events reported.

More staff reduces rate of adverse events

BCU’s senior research fellow in health and social care, and one of the study’s authors, Sarahjane Jones, said: ‘There is strong evidence that having more registered nurses to, or above, the clinically required levels does reduce the rate of adverse events.

‘However, this is not consistent across all locations and all shifts, so the message would be that we need to understand what goes on in the wards and shifts. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.

‘These findings offer an opportunity for a tightening-up of policy on workforce safety and retention.’

Responding to the findings, a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: ‘No one should have to face the threat of violence or aggression at work.’

They added that the interim NHS People Plan outlines steps to reduce vacancies, and that the department was committed to increasing the nursing workforce.

There are now 36,101 mental health nurses in the NHS, said the DHSC spokesperson, adding that this was more than 750 than in June 2017. 

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Nurses cannot routinely use mental health support service – despite claim they could

Government backtracks on health secretary Matt Hancock’s Twitter statement

The government has confirmed that a mental health support service for NHS doctors and dentists in England will not be routinely available to nurses – despite the health secretary tweeting that it would. 

The NHS Practitioner Health service was set up last year to provide confidential support for NHS doctors in London if they felt they were struggling with their mental health. This service has now been expanded and is available across England for NHS dentists as well as doctors. 

Conflicting information from the government

Health secretary Matt Hancock claimed on social media that the expanded service would also support nurses and other NHS staff.

However, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) subsequently clarified that this was not the case.

Encouraging nurses to seek help

An DHSC spokesperson said: ‘Nurses and all other NHS staff are encouraged to access mental health services local to them, but can contact NHS Practitioner Health if they feel they have nowhere to turn and the service will aim to signpost them to the most appropriate help.

'We want all staff to feel supported at work, and the upcoming NHS People Plan will put the well-being of all employees across the health service at the heart of ensuring the NHS is a great place to work.’

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