Two thirds of care home staff admit quality of care being overlooked

New research reveals worrying gaps in care provision, with two thirds of UK care home staff admitting resident quality of care and nutritional needs are being overlooked.

86% of care home professionals across the UK admitted vital aspects of care provision are suffering due to outdated and time-consuming procedures, with many staff struggling to fulfil their day-to-day roles.

The new data also highlights several care management challenges that need to be addressed to improve staff retention, morale and the overall quality of residential care.

More than half (54%) of care home workers felt staff happiness was overlooked, and 44% of workers attribute the high turnover of staff in the care sector to low pay.

40% of care home workers felt they couldn’t provide the quality of care they would like to due to the time they spend on admin.

Over half (52%) of respondents, agreed that care home inspections simply add further pressure to their role, and would welcome a way to improve this process.

More than a third of care home managers (32%) also said that keeping up with time intensive processes like day-to-day menu planning, allergens management, and recording resident data around nutrition and hydration, worries them.

A further 41% were concerned about the rising costs of food, energy and inflation, while 30% of care home workers identified supplier issues, food shortages and running out of supplies as a growing concern.            

Lack of staffing and resource also continues to be a worry for the sector, with 67% of care workers citing this as a key challenge.

Only 6% of care home professionals said there is nothing that worries them in the day to day running of their care home.

Ollie Brand, CEO at eProcurement technology firm Zupa, who commissioned the research, said: ‘Caring for the vulnerable and elderly is time-consuming and demanding. It requires specialist skills and knowledge. This study highlights that care home staff are having to deal with multiple challenges with little resource, and only so many hours in the day. There is also a direct correlation between what worries care home staff day to day and the quality of care they are physically able to deliver. Patchy reporting, outdated processes and a heavily reliance on manual updates, simply adds to the frustration and puts greater pressure on already stretched staff.’

Photo supplied by Zupa