THE managing director of a Cheshire-based home care provider has called on the new Prime Minister to help the care sector as it faces one of its toughest periods to date.

Right at Home Mid Cheshire has been operating for six years and offers home care to clients around Northwich, Knutsford and Winsford, with ‘quality measures’ such as minimum home visits of one hour to ensure jobs can be carried out to the ‘highest standards’.

But MD Ben Selby says the past 12 months have been ‘very challenging’ for the whole sector, due to a combination of recruitment issues, the cost-of-living crisis, underfunding, and negative perceptions of the job.

As well as more help for social care workers, he wants to encourage people to consider entering the field which he describes as an incredibly rewarding career.

“One of the biggest challenges facing the sector is the recruitment issues,” Ben said.

“Many care providers say they are really struggling to recruit, and we are no different to that.

“Particularly when the Clap for Carers started, and people then started clapping for social care staff as well as the NHS, it was the first time I felt there was equality in the sector and during that time we had several people come to us because there were lots of people out of work or furloughed and they wanted to make a difference.

“Since the lockdown and the pandemic ended, it’s all become more difficult than ever.

“Social care - as well as other industries like hospitality and entertainment – can have unsociable hours, it can be quite tough work, and I think that has put people off to a certain extent.

“The message we want to get across is that a lot of people have a very negative perception of what it’s like to work in care, always thinking of the worst-case scenario – but they are going to be well supported and well trained.

“For Right at Home, a lot of the people we support are not people with really complex needs, and a lot of them are quite independent because they want to live at home, so personal care is often at a low level.

“People think it’s just about helping people go to the toilet and washing them, and while you are doing that, it’s more about supporting people to be as independent as possible.”

And it’s not just recruitment issues the sector is battling against.

“The cost-of-living crisis is having a big impact on everybody, and we’ve done a lot as a provider to help with that,” Ben said.

“We increased the price we pay to our carers for mileage quite significantly at the beginning of the summer as fuel costs were going up.

“We hold good pay rates, well above living wage.

“We’re doing all sorts to try to support our existing staff and encourage new staff to come into the sector.

“With the new Prime Minister coming in, we would like to call on them to really think about what they are going to do.

“One of the things we thought about was the base rate for mileage which was set at 45p in 2011.

“Carers can always claim a tax rebate on the difference between what the provider pays for mileage, but we’re paying 40p so there’s not much to claim back.

“That base rate has not been changed since 2011, so one of things the Prime Minister could look at is increasing that to support carers who work in the community.

“Another concern is as we move into winter now, most of our clients are elderly or vulnerable people and their energy bills are going to be going up – are we going to be visiting clients who switch their heating off because they can’t afford?

“The other side of it is the funding for social care.

“It’s still very underfunded and ultimately under-appreciated I think as well,” Ben added.

Right at Home has several vacancies available, and you don’t need prior qualifications to apply.

“We recruit more on a values-based approach – recruiting people who have those core, caring values, and emphasising with people who need support," Ben said.

“We have a really positive culture because we have people who are all very similar in that way - we all get pleasure out of improving the quality of life of the people we support, even if it’s just in a small way.

“People come in and whether they have worked in care or not, everyone does a full induction in a classroom, there is e-learning on top of that, we have supervisors who go out with them and support them and they have chance to go out with experienced carers and just observe.

“It really is so well trained and supported.”

Visit rightathome.co.uk/midcheshire/