Mar 26 - GSD Says Sacramento Has “Little Concern” For Care Agency Staff
The GSD says it is disappointed by the response from Minister Sacramento to Opposition statements relating to the staffing and management crisis the Care Agency is presently going through, despite the “negative impact” this is having on the most vulnerable in the community. The party says that Mrs Sacramento has shown “little concern” that 74 Care Agency staff have resigned so far during her tenure.
The Opposition statement continues:
It is clear that the Minister’s actions have been entirely ineffective these last two years in the context of raising any ‘low morale’ she alleges to have inherited, which would probably be due, in any event, to the demoralising effect on social workers of the GSLP’s concerted and sustained attack, through GSLP-friendly media outlets on Social Services when they were in Opposition. The GSD points out that it was these GSLP-friendly media outlets that bombarded the community with horror stories about cruelty against residents and patients that undermined the good work and state of mind of social workers at the time.
It is nonsensical to suggest that Ms Sacramento has achieved anything to overcome the state of affairs the Ministry is facing, unless she thinks that all the representations currently made to the Opposition from interested parties affected by the Care Agency are untrue?
“No solutions to address the issues have been forthcoming from Minister Sacramento in her response to the concerns we have raised. Clearly it remains the case that the Government needs to commission an independent review in order to highlight and deal with the strategies and management issues that have led to such an unprecedented turnover of staff and such continued low morale,” said Isobel Ellul-Hammond, Opposition Spokesman for Social Services.
It remains clear that turnover in a crucial service such as the Care Agency is not good for those who rely on its day-to-day support. This is one of the most important, front-facing services in our community which protects the interests of the vulnerable. Action must be taken in order to retain the committed professionals, who give dedicated to time to the service of others and need to be engaged in order to build the trusting relationships that must exist between carers and vulnerable people.
In relation to the Government’s issuing of figures yesterday over the high turnover of Care Agency staff over the last four years: whether or not the present staffing turnover is as bad as when the GSD were in Government remains unclear. The Minister for Social Services, Samantha Sacramento, quotes figures not represented in the Estimates Books or differentiated by retirement, dismissal, resignation and transfer.
According to the 2013/2014 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, there are 550 Social Services and Care Agency staff; however they do not reflect the transfer of 247 nurses from the Care Agency to the GHA after the pay equalisation deal last November. 550 minus the 247 nurses equates to the 303 total of Care Agency staff, consisting mainly of Care Workers, which the GSD is focusing on. A loss of 74 staff members out of 303, over two years, reflects an annual turnover rate of 12.2%.
