The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (“the College”) is welcoming a new Scottish Government campaign to recruit more adult social care workers and address vacancies. The ‘You can make the difference’ campaign will feature on TV, radio, outdoor and digital advertising. The College has consistently spoken about the need to tackle discharge delays in hospital which are regularly caused by a lack of adult social care workers to underpin care packages, often for older people.
Speaking today Professor Andrew Elder, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said:
The College welcomes this campaign and the positive message behind it that rightly highlights the importance of adult social care workers and the massive contribution they can make to people’s lives and to our communities.
We have repeatedly spoken about the need for government to redouble efforts to reduce discharge delays in hospital which are often as a result of care places in the community being unavailable due to high adult social care worker vacancies. As we highlighted again this week with colleagues from the British Geriatrics Society, discharge delays are impairing flow through hospitals, and contributing to waits for acute admission, to time spent on trolleys and to the numbers of ambulances queueing.
The College is clear that a career in adult social care is an incredibly valuable one and we are keen to see adult social care workers supported as much as possible. We hope this campaign will lead to more people considering working in social care and consequently will help to reduce adult social care worker shortages.
