The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

The Sunday Times November 28, 2021 2GN 15

NEWS

Care homes face

£90-an-hour bill

for agency nurses

Three killed by falling trees as 100mph Storm Arwen causes havoc across the country

that caused destruction from

southern England to

northern Scotland on Friday

night. Road traffic and trains

were brought to a standstill,

power lines damaged and

roofs were blown off homes.

Three men died, hit by

falling trees, in Cumbria, Co

Antrim and Aberdeenshire.

The man in Northern Ireland

was named as Francis Lagan,

a primary school head. Police

responding to the incident in

Aberdeenshire returned to

their van to find it had also

been crushed beneath a tree.

More than 200,000 people

in northeast England were

left without electricity after

power lines were damaged.

In Manchester more than 120

lorries and many cars were

stranded for hours in heavy

snow on the M62.

In Llanelli a ten-day-old

puppy called Florence died in

the cold after the roof of an

animal rescue centre was

torn off by heavy winds.

The extreme weather

began on Friday afternoon as

the storm followed a track

southwards across the North

Sea. The Met Office said that

the strongest winds were

recorded in Northumberland

and Devon. The worst of the

gusts abated as Arwen moved

towards southern England

and Wales.

The Clifton Suspension

Bridge in Bristol was shut

amid safety fears, only the

third time it has been closed

by weather in its 156-year

history. The reality TV series

I’m a Celebrity... filming in

north Wales was hit by

“technical difficulties”,

leading to two live episodes

having to be scrapped.

However, Arwen also

brought enjoyment. In

Cambridgeshire residents

woke up to a picturesque

dusting of snow, while the

calm after the storm in the

Scottish Highlands revealed

prime conditions for

sledging.

Weather, page 39

At least three people were

killed, buildings destroyed

and thousands left without

power as Storm Arwen lashed

many parts of the UK.

It brought heavy snow, rain

and winds of up to 100mph

Shanti Das

Police dealing with the death of a man killed by a tree in Aberdeenshire returned to find their own van crushed, but Storm Arwen brought joy to sledgers in the Highland village of Carrbridge and a dusting of snow to Kibworth in Leicestershire

DEREK IRONSIDE/NEWSLINE MEDIA; PETER SUMMERS/GETTY IMAGES; GEOFF ROBINSON

before last night’s dances she

said: “Me being on the show

has shown a lot of people that

deaf people are more capable

than believed. Hopefully I

am not going to be the last,

not just acting in the TV

industry but in all sorts

of jobs. If someone deaf

comes for a job

interview, because of

the interviewer seeing

me on Strictly, they

might realise, ‘Oh that

person could work very

hard and just do it!’. Just

give deaf people a job,

basically!”

Rose Ayling-Ellis hopes her

success on Strictly Come

Dancing will encourage

more employers to hire

workers who are deaf.

The EastEnders

actress, 27, is the first

deaf contestant on the

BBC1 show and the

bookmakers’ favourite

to win its glitterball

trophy. Speaking

Rosamund Urwin

Media Editor

Rose Ayling-Ellis has

been a star of the show

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Care homes are being

charged more than £90 an

hour for agency nurses who

are vaccinated as staff

shortages reach critical levels

across the country.

The scarcity of nurses and

carers has left care homes

and hospitals scrapping over

agency workers and even led

to shift bookings being

“gazumped”, just as a buyer

would offer more money to

beat a rival to a new home.

A shortfall in staff has been

exacerbated by the

introduction of compulsory

vaccination for care workers

on November 11. The deadline

for NHS staff to be fully

vaccinated is April 1.

Geoff Butcher, chief

executive of Blackadder

Corporation Ltd, which runs

six homes in the West

Midlands, said: “We’re at a

point where it’s financially

payment rate and then a

couple of hours later they’ll

get the call saying ‘we can’t

supply our staff to you now

because the health service

has offered us more money’.

Since May, the number of

unfilled care posts has

overtaken pre-pandemic

levels, with more than

100,000 on any day in the

past year. Butcher said he was

losing staff to agencies too.

“The pandemic has caused a

lot of people to look at their

work life balance. We’ve got

one nurse who left us to work

for an agency, and she said

‘I’ve gone because I can work

20 instead of 40 hours and

still get the same money’.”

About 60 per cent of places

in Blackadder’s homes are

funded by the local authority,

which has a ceiling on what it

can pay. Butcher said that

rising staff, fuel and

insurance costs meant he was

expecting to have to raise fees

for private residents by 10 per

cent “just to break even”.

Leaving the EU has made it

even harder to find carers,

who have historically been

recruited from poorer

nations on the Continent.

Providers want care workers

added to the list of shortage

occupations granted special

visas which would allow them

to recruit from abroad.

Peter Kinsey, chairman of

Care England’s learning

disability group, said the

recruitment crisis for nursing

and care homes was “the

worst anybody can

remember”. “It’s putting

increasing pressure on the

staff we do have... You want

to do the high-quality stuff

about helping people have a

really good life. But

sometimes you’re forced into

just making sure you’ve got

enough staff to do the basics.”

Simon Patient, managing

director of Heritage Manor

care homes, said while their

homes used few agency staff

they were relying on treble

the number they had before

the pandemic. He said: “I had

someone on the phone asking

for a reference and I said ‘no,

this person’s really not that

great’ and they said, ‘OK, I’m

still going to hire them though

because I have to have

someone in the building’.”

@emilydugan

Emily Dugan

Social Affairs Correspondent

just cripplingly unviable. We

have to use agency workers

because we can’t recruit and

agency staff charge between

two and three times what we

would normally pay them.”

His staff nurses are paid just

under £20 an hour, but one

agency charges £94 an hour

for a nurse on a bank holiday

night shift. Even a daytime

weekday shift costs £46 an

hour. Staff vacancies in

residential care rose from

6 per cent to 10.2 per cent

between April and

September, according to the

Care Quality Commission, as

care homes had to compete

for staff with retail and

hospitality sectors.

Kieron Broadbent, chief

executive of the West

Midlands Care Association,

said that care homes were

having nursing shift bookings

gazumped by hospitals who

can pay more. He said: “What

our members have been

telling us is they... agree a

10.2%

Staff vacancy rate

in residential care

in September

Strictly star:

give deaf a job