Sheffield's carers need more recognition says council boss

Sara Storey, who started out as a care assistant and progressed to become a senior officer in adult social care at Sheffield Council, said some of the challenges facing carers were very similar to when she started out and there needed to be improvements.

She said: "People tell us home care doesn’t work well for them. There’s a focus on meals and meds and people feel rushed and don’t know when their care worker will come and it makes for a poor experience.

"But when people tell us good things they are usually talking about a person who they have developed a good relationship with.

"It’s not a great job in terms of pay or esteem, as it’s not a well thought of or valued role - we don’t hear of them in the same positive sense as other staff.

"It’s easy to recruit because people don’t need qualifications. We are getting more young people and men working in the sector, perhaps because it’s harder to find jobs in general.

"A lot are on low or zero hour contracts and don’t get paid when they are off ill and the opportunity for career development is very slim.

Ms Storey, who was speaking at a scrutiny meeting, said carers needed more recognition.

She said: "We need to raise the esteem of workers and allow that expertise and knowledge to be utilised to make sure we get a better service for people.

"The voice of carers is often not heard as we think we need to hear from people with some letters after their name but it’s not the GP or social worker who sees these people occasionally, it’s the carer coming in every single day."

Ms Storey also highlighted the continuing crisis facing social care. "We have more and more people living longer and know these people will need more and more care and will be highly complex.

"If we are going to be able to provide support to very elderly, frail and disabled people there’s some changes that are going to be required.”

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