Covid: Staff propped up care homes without extra pay, says report

Many care home staff worked extra hours without extra pay to prop up the system during the pandemic, a study suggests.

Public money helped stabilise UK care homes during the first wave of Covid-19 but it was withdrawn too soon and not focused on staff, says the research, led by Warwick Business School.

The researchers studied the accounts of more than 4,000 UK care home companies, from just before the pandemic and during the first year of the health crisis.

They found nearly two thirds (60%) of care homes were already financially fragile as the pandemic took hold.

The report concludes: "The decision by government to end financial support for care home companies after the peak of the pandemic had passed has likely contributed to the current financial and operational difficulties experienced by the sector."

It states the financial plight of many staff and the immense pressure they were under "means it is not surprising the care home sector has struggled to both recruit and retain staff once lockdown restrictions were removed and the wider economy re-opened".

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Source: BBC News, 12 April 2023