Agenda item

Review: Brexit

Genette Laws, Director of Commissioning,  Children’s and Adults’ Services  Southwark Council, will present the enclosed briefing , to support the scrutiny review into the impact of Brexit on the health and social care work force.

Minutes:

Genette Laws, Director of Commissioning, Children’s and Adults’ Services Southwark Council, presented the briefing on the impact of Brexit on the social care workforce, circulated with the agenda.

 

The chair then invited questions and the following points were made:

 

Southwark has a higher percentage of Non EU Nationals and a lower percentage of EU Nationals working in Health & Social Care.  EU citizens comprise 6% of the Southwark workforce whereas nationally this is 7% and for London wide 13%.

 

A member commented that the council had been surprised at the number of citizens requesting resettlement in Southwark as this had ended up being more that the total estimated EU national population. Members requested the numbers (not just percentages) of EU settlement figures.

 

 

The data shows that Brexit did not have a material impact on adult social care workforce, however the council can be less sure about children’s social care as the data is less complete. There is a bit of a local arms race to recruit to children’s social care, which is being addressed through some London borough wide agreements.

 

 

There is a general shortfall of health and social care workers, which is less of an issue for Southwark than the rest of London. Southwark has an 8% vacancy rate, whereas London it is 9.5%. Members requested more information on vacancies and monitoring, for the social care workforce, and national figures.

 

The Director of Commissioning said the lower vacancy rate in Southwark is considered to be a result of the positive impact of the ethical care charter, which some boroughs have a version of and some do not.

 

 Members asked the Director of Commissioning if she thought that the workforce scoping review ought to be opened up to include the impact of vaccination, as well as the wider impact of the pandemic on morale and burnout. The Director of Commissioning agreed that this would be beneficial. There is a risk of mandatory vaccination being potentially resented by some of the social care workforce given the particularly adverse impact of the pandemic on social care staff, and  some feeling of being singled out - however good the reasons. She clarified that the vaccine is only presently mandated for care home staff and care homes visitors, like social workers, not home care workers. The rational is probably the greater mortality rate in care homes in previous waves due to the risk of infection breakouts within a vulnerable population.

 

The introduction of mandatory vaccination for COVID 19 is likely to have an impact on the social care workforce, the Director of Commissioning said. There is also a consultation to extend mandatory vaccination to all health and social care staff, so there could well be more of an impact. The first milestone for Care Homes personal has been passed with 15th September being the date for first vaccination. This is being monitored through ‘self-certification’ however the second date will have harder monitoring.

 

 

RESOLVED

 

The Commission will expand the scope of the workforce review to look at mandatory vaccination and the impact of the pandemic on the health and wellbeing of the workforce, particularly moral and burnout.

 

Officers to provide:

 

·  Numbers (not just percentages) of EU settlement figures.

 

 

·  More information on vacancies and monitoring, for the social care workforce, including national comparison figures.  

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting documents: