Hello PPMA members and friends

The staffing crisis is one the key issues facing our sector at the moment and staffing shortages in the care sector is a huge part of this. Our good friends and supporters from Matrix have recently produced some data that might help to solve this difficult problem and below we are sharing their findings in an article recently written by them.

Recent Matrix data shows that the care sector staffing crisis could be solved by simply enticing people back in to their old jobs. There’s no doubt there is a staff shortage within the care sector and this is reported daily within the national press.

The stats clearly show that older people are leaving the sector. Whilst there are younger people coming in to care (a 7% increase in the 18-24 age category) this does not offset the 25% decrease in the older demographic. There’s definitely an urgent requirement to entice young people but this can take time, due to induction processes and compliance. You can also import labour but that is no longer an easy route due to Brexit regulations. Matrix believes that bringing the experienced people back is the solution, but better pay rates and conditions would have to apply.

There were also large changes in the age categories 25-34 & 55-64. The graph below indicates there is a large labour change on its way with the work force average age decreasing, could this be related to the housing market boom and the affect it has on people needing to work more hours/second jobs to try and afford a home?

In the last year alone, the number of over 55’s placed in temporary work has declined from 25.8% in Q2 2021 to 21.67% in Q2 2022. The findings contradict a recent government statement that there are currently over nine million workers aged over 50 on employer payrolls – an increase of more than 300,000 compared to a year ago.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), over 500,000 older people have left the workforce in recent years, many prompted to do so by the pandemic. The number of over-50s not working or currently looking for work rose by 493,000 from October 2019 to December 2021.

This correlates with Matrix figures for the same period, which shows that the number of workers over 55 in employment dropped nearly 4%, representing 27.62% of all workers on its books in Q4 2019 and 24% in Q4 2021.

“Despite the recent claims from the government, our own intel paints a different picture – the number of older people going back to work has been declining steadily since 2016,” says Mark Inskip, CEO at Matrix. “There is a large labour change on its way with the workforce average age decreasing. Amongst nationwide staff shortages and economic woes, older people are not going back to work despite recent efforts to coax them back into the workplace. The care sector can turn this trend by really connecting with past employees to bring them back.”

Find out more about Matrix at: https://teammatrix.com/

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In addition, Sarah France-Gorton from award winning North Yorkshire County Council shared her considerable experience in this area.  North Yorkshire have done some incredible work over the years to minimise the cost of agency resource in particular – so if you can, they are worth talking to.  You might find the following blog from Chris Grimes at Matrix interesting.  Additionally this whitepaper is also well worth a read.

Happy reading, there’s always something to learn about this topic.