Dementia Support Line
Government launches adult social care recruitment drive - Alzheimer's Society comment
The Government has launched a recruitment campaign to try to plug a hole of 110,000 vacancies in the social care workforce.
More than 1.45 million people work in social care at the moment, but an extra 650,000 workers will be needed by 2035 due to an ageing population, ministers said.
The new campaign - Every Day Is Different - also comes as the Health Foundation publishes its own report on the NHS workforce, expressing concerns about the growing number of staff shortages across the board.
Sally Copley, Director of Policy, Campaigns and Partnerships at Alzheimer's Society, said:
'With tens of thousands more people with dementia in need of round-the-clock care by 2021, the Government’s recruitment campaign is to be welcomed, but is not enough on its own to tackle the dementia care crisis.
'Our Fix Dementia Care campaign highlighted the importance of social care workers having the training they need to deliver quality dementia care. We found one in three homecare workers receive no dementia training at all, leaving people with dementia left dehydrated, missing meals, and stuck in soiled clothing for days on end.
'The Government has to be bold in the forthcoming Green Paper and Spending Review. The system must be robust enough and properly funded to cope with the biggest health and social care challenge facing our country today.'
