Pandemic has put relentless pressure on social workers and it’s taking toll
BUT BOSS SAYS SHE HAS A PLAN TO TACKLE THE WORST THAT COVID CAN THROW AT COUNTY
WHEN Melanie Brooks took up her role as director of adult social care and health at Nottinghamshire County Council, in January 2019, she set about introducing a programme of change and reform that would take the service into the future.
A year later, everything changed. Little did she know two years ago what huge challenges the service would soon be facing.
Or that the plans for reform she was building – in line with a wider national movement towards better integration of social care, health, housing and other support services – would be overtaken by a crisis on an unprecedented scale, even in the pressured field of social care.
“There were a series of floods at the end of 2019,” she says. “As we recovered from the flooding we went into the pandemic.
“Very quickly we moved into emergency planning mode. We had a workforce that quickly mobilised.
“We had an experienced workforce. Our workforce and care homes were resilient. Notts was in a really good place at that point.”
Even so, today, like those all over the country, the social care service in Notts, Ms Brooks admits, is in a crisis of multiple layers, and has been for most of the pandemic.
While most people have spent the best part of 18 months working from home, social workers have continued to deliver face-to-face care, without interruption, under increasing pressure.
Relentless pressures on the workforce have taken their toll. Cases of burnout and mental health problems among carers themselves is high.
As a result the workforce has dropped just when the service itself has had to expand and diversify to tackle new challenges such as sourcing PPE in care homes and visiting the most isolated and lonely to dealing with the many issues, from domestic abuse and alcohol and drug use, that lockdown has exacerbated.
Ms Brooks says: “They’ve been out there, they’ve been more at risk of contracting the virus and dying, they’ve reported greater incidents of mental health problems than the average. People are tired – we’re starting to see people leave care.
“We’ve been in a national emergency now for nearly two years. The pandemic has been really hard for social care. We’ve had 18 months where we’ve had a number of challenges to deal with.
“There is a difficulty in fulfilling all of our requests for support. We are seeing for the first time ever people waiting for things where they normally wouldn’t.
“Older people have been seriously impacted by lockdown. The pandemic has increased loneliness.
“This isn’t new to us, but coping with this level of stress and pressure is. We’re really feeling the consequences. It is very tight. Any more impacts of Covid are going to be very difficult to manage.”
With the Omicron variant apparently tearing through the population, the grim reality is that the social care service is bound to face more pressure, and more consequences. When it emerged last week that the council’s adult social care and health team had put out an “emergency appeal” for staff to help out in south Nottinghamshire, where workers were urgently needed to plug gaps, it was taken by many – not least councillors on the relevant committee of the council – as a sign that the service isn’t fit for the rough winter ahead.
In response, Ms Brooks and other members of her team were blunt that there is a real crisis in staff, at Nottinghamshire County Council and almost every major local authority, a problem for which, Kashif Ahmed, service director for strategic commissioning and service improvement, admitted that “there isn’t a silver bullet”.
But there are, Ms Brooks says, plans to be ready for the worst the next few months can bring, along three key scenarios of varying severity.
Near the top of the list of priorities is recruitment. To that end, the team is working on a number of measures, and working with partners in services across the county, including the NHS trust, the countywide CCG and other stakeholders, on a major drive to boost staffing numbers.
“We’re working closely with providers to make better use of the workforce grant. That could be for staff, recruitment, retention bonuses. There’s a whole range of things we’re negotiating with our partners.
“We’re trying to increase the image of care as a profession. It’s a brilliant career – it’s a job for life.”
Aside from recruitment, contingencies have been put in place to handle more immediate, emergency pressures.
As director of social care and health at the county council, Ms Brooks is at the fulcrum of a multiagency network of health, public health, housing, policing and administration providers that make up the support network for the most vulnerable people in Nottinghamshire.
Under the extreme pressures of the times, the need for efficient coordination, and cooperation between the services is greater than ever – and will become more so as the Omicron winter drags on.
“Locally we’ve got a really strong outbreak plan. It takes forward all the measures recommended by the Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
“We’re working closely with our health partners at the CCG, networking providers together to be ready for outbreaks and pressures in the hospitals.”
For those who are vulnerable, or for people concerned about loved ones, there are multiple ways to access help. Two important phone numbers, below, are available to members of the public needing access to services, including an emergency response.
And just as was seen at the start of lockdown, all those months ago, Ms Brooks says that community spirit will be a vital factor over the next few months. She is urging everyone to keep an eye out for those around them who may be especially vulnerable this winter, those who can become invisible in their isolation.
She says: “I want people to have some concern for those around them. If we think about the pressure that the health and social care system is under, it’s going to be really important that people look out for each other, and check whether their neighbour is well, or lonely.
“It’s just knowing that that person has someone looking out for them.” FOR GENERAL ENQUIRIES Nottinghamshire County Council residents can call the Adult Social Care and Health Customer Service Centre on 0300 500 80 80.
■■ For more urgent non-999 calls regarding emergency care needs residents can call the Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) on 0300 500 80 90 or, out of hours, the emergency duty team on 0300 456 4546.
■■ Residents can also report concerns about adults or children to the team via online forms.
We’re trying to increase the image of care as a profession. It’s a brilliant career – it’s a job for life
Melanie Brooks