The existing government passes legislation in 2009 calling for a higher level of in home care.
The industry welcomes the initiative but warns of the challenge to find staff above and beyond the difficulties already being experienced.
The industry recognises the training needs and starts to recruit on the basis of availability of people against a back drop of:
This meant that that Eastern Europe looked like the main source of labour but in February the UK Border Agency quietly changed its policy on Bulgarians and Romanians ruling out their participation.
Currency weakness made the UK less attractive to other participants and this has forced up costs – a classic own goal.
All has been quiet in the run up to the elections and many care sector operators have deferred investment until some clarity emerges but this is probably a mistake as we belief all the main parties will be looking to reduce costs by keeping people in their own homes as long as possible.
We expect the issue of care to re-emerge after the election and believe that the early movers will gain competitive advantage.
“To be honest it is all a bit of a mess at the moment” says Chris Slay of Skills Provision” We are struggling to advise both clients looking for people and the candidates themselves but do believe that for people with good English and a driving license and willing to work with people in their own home it will be one of the few growth areas in the UK economy in 2010-2011 based on simple supply and demand”
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