The institute of health and social care management conducted a snap survey from Thursday December 2nd to Saturday December 4th to investigate the current situation in regard to the wellbeing of registered care managers.
327 managers responded to the survey, with a 100% completion rate, and between them, their services provide support for 12,895 individuals and their combined workforces total 14,128 care professionals (care workers).
The survey conducted asked managers:
- How would you rate your current wellbeing in relation to burnout/exhaustion?
- Have you considered leaving your role as a registered manager?
- How many caring role vacancies does your service currently have?
There is a concern at present that registered managers are seeing their workloads increase which is leading to burnout, and exhaustion which in turn is leading to managers leaving their posts or the sector entirely. Most recently (for care homes) the policy to mandate COVID vaccinations as a condition of deployment within social care home settings has seen an increase (though no official data has been reported) in care vacancies across the country. It is expected that this will be emulated across the wider social care sector by April 2022. Due to these increase vacancies, registered managers are finding themselves spending more time working supernumerary, often in addition to their required hours in a managerial role.
Findings from our survey
Our survey found that out of 327 managers only 1 (0.31%) said they feel great but 8.26% (27 respondents) said they felt OK. The majority of respondents (47.32%) said they were tired but coping. Alarmingly 40.37% (132) of respondents said they were close to burnout with 2.75% (9 respondents) saying they were already on sick leave due to exhaustion and burnout.
When it came to whether respondents had considered leaving their roles as a manager, over 2 thirds (70.64%) of respondents said that they had considered it with an additional 4.59% (15 respondents) saying they had already resigned. Less than a quarter of respondents (24.77%) said they hadn’t considered leaving their roles.
Over the services of the 327 respondents, we found that there is a total of 2,260 vacancies in a caring capacity averaging at 7 vacancies per manager.
These results are not a reflection of the vast opportunities offered within social care, but more a reflection on the treatment of social care throughout the years. Public perception and pay have all had major parts to play in individual perception of the sector, which in turn all effect recruitment and retention.
The institute of Health and Social Care Management recognises the efforts the government are making to reform the sector; however, we believe through coproduction more can be achieved. We will be releasing our “A People Plan for Social Care” at midday on Monday 6th December. The People Plan has been created through consultation with providers, leaders, and frontline staff who are representative of the whole social care sector. It outlines the current situation, outstanding practice, and recommendations for improving Public Image, recruitment, retention and staff wellbeing, training, and pay and conditions. We are open to work with central and local governments as well as other providers and organisations to continue to help reform social care to protect those who draw upon services and the workforces delivering those services.