We would like to make the community aware of the current challenges being faced by Park House residential and home care services. This is due to difficulties recruiting sufficient new staff, particularly experienced carers. The council will not be allowed to operate the service if we cannot ensure minimum safe staffing levels.
The pressure on the service is primarily one of recruitment. Currently the council spends approximately £1.2 million per year on adult social care, this is 79% of the authority’s total Council Tax income.
Over the last 12 months, there has been an increasing dependency on agency staff to maintain the service. This is not a viable long-term solution. Agency workers are unable to undertake certain aspects of care work such as medicine management. There are also logistical and cost implications due to the need to provide housing, flights and agent fees. Continuity of care for residents is also affected.
At present, Park House is a safe place for residents and the intention is to increase our efforts to recruit staff to ensure it can continue operate in the future. To this end we are holding an open day on Tuesday 21 February 2017 from 2pm - 8pm where anyone interested in working in care will be able to come along to find out more.
If you have accommodation that could be used to house care workers at Park House, the council would like to hear from you. Please contact the Senior Officer Adult Social care, Gareth Peters, at gpeters@scilly.gov.uk or call 01720 422148.
Looking after the vulnerable members of our community is our prime consideration.