While the lockdown is easing, we are still in the midst of the worst healthcare crisis in history. Ahead of the COVID-19 crisis, the UK had almost 120,000 unfilled care facility positions. The nationwide volunteering effort centred on inviting people to aid the NHS means care facilities can turn to agencies for much-needed support and uphold their staffing levels.

Care Home Professional said in October 2019 that staffing shortages were the number one concern facing care facilities. Providing high-quality care requires the appropriate combination of people with the right talents and attitudes, in the right place at the right time. The UK’s health and social care sectors have a structural issue in recruiting enough staff to satisfy rising demand. Inadequate staff-to-patient ratios can lead to decreased patient safety and service quality, which can lead to service closure.

Using nursing and care agencies to address personnel shortages is effective. A 2017 study found that agencies are increasingly using staff to solve chronic staffing difficulties, rather than just covering short-term absences.

Nupath Recruitment understands caregivers’ concerns about hiring agency staff. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research also polled care home managers and NHS trusts on their views on utilising agencies to supplement staffing. Concerns about service continuity were the most recurrent concern. Our nursing and residential home clients can assure continuity of care for their service users, which is vital in these hard times to restrict the number of individuals joining a facility.

To keep care facilities safe during COVID-19, the UK Government recently created a £600 million adult social care infection control fund. Our clients can block-book agency personnel to meet government criteria to restrict workforce movement between care homes and prevent danger to patients and staff. In accordance with this, we are seeing an increase in requests for one-to-one help as an effective infection prevention technique.

Our fees vary depending on the package to give our clients the best value for money when hiring Nupath Recruitment agency workers. We endeavour to serve our clients with high-quality, fully trained professionals when they need it most. We provide a wide selection of alternatives to help care facilities of all sizes through these difficult times.