I have raised a motion in the Scottish Parliament on the reports of major staff vacancies across the care service. If we are to truly tackle the crisis facing care services in our country we need to start by addressing the poor pay and poor terms and conditions faced by workers across the sector. We especially need to address the discrepancy between care workers in the public sector and those in the private sector, by introducing parity of pay and terms and conditions.
Please see the motion as raised in Parliament by myself below:
Motion Number: S6M-06934
Lodged By: Alex Rowley
Date Lodged: 23/11/2022
Title: Major Staff Vacancies in Care Services
Motion Text:
That the Parliament is deeply concerned by a new report from the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council showing nearly half of all care services in Scotland had vacancies at the end of 2021; understands that the Staff Vacancies in Care Services 2021 report shows that the percentage of care services reporting vacancies increased to its highest level since these statistics were first published for the year 2016; recognises that the report found that at 31 December 2021, 47% of services reported vacancies, with the percentage of care services reporting vacancies having increased by 11% over the previous year alone; is worried that care homes for older people, housing support services, care at home services, care homes for adults, care homes for children and young people, secure accommodation services and residential special school care accommodation services all show as having a proportion of services with vacancies significantly above the national average for all care services; is concerned that the report shows 60% of services reported having nursing vacancies, which is an increase of 14% on the previous year; understands that 58% of services with vacancies reported having problems filling them, up 15% from the previous year, with the reported reasons given being too few applicants in general (60%), too few applicants with experience (57%), and too few qualified applicants (50%), and believes that urgent action is needed to avert what it sees as the worsening crisis in our care services by delivering better terms, conditions and pay for all care workers.
