The organisation’s State of the Sector report for 2022 finds that more than 60 per cent of providers reported staff turnover greater than one in five members of staff in the year to May 2022.
This represents the highest levels of turnover since the ICHA began recording data in 2015.
-
Competition authority study raises prospect of commissioning reforms
-
Commissioning Care: Special Report
It also shows an increase of 36 per cent of providers facing the same turnover rates compared with the previous 12 months, according to the report.
Large providers have been worst hit by high staff turnover compared with smaller providers, it adds, noting that 17 per cent of large respondents reported levels of staff turnover below 10 per cent compared with 21 per cent of small providers.
High staff turnover contributes to “challenges faced by providers and the sector-wide barriers to improving sufficiency”, Peter Sandiford, chief executive of the ICHA said.
Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of respondents reported an increase in referral rates as England recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some 65 per cent of respondents reported an increase in referral rates in May 2022 compared with 55 per cent in November 2020.
The report also asked respondents to share their views on a Competition and Markets Authority report on profiteering by large providers which contributed to the Care Review.
It finds that while 63 per cent of respondents agree with the CMA’s recommendations on removing barriers to increase capacity and more than 90 per cent agree with the report’s market oversight proposals, “some providers felt there had been insufficient understanding of the role of small and medium sized organisations and too little consultation or engagement with providers by the CMA and the Care Review”.
It adds that 65 per cent of all providers reported fee increases “which is consistent with the CMA findings for the largest providers”, however, Sandiford warns that CMA recommendations aimed at reducing fees could lead to even less capacity for children.
“Despite clear intention in the sector to increase capacity and invest in new provision to meet rising demand for placements, there are signs that over 40 per cent of providers surveyed are unable to build the financial reserves necessary for such investment. Staffing of course remains a critical and incredibly costly challenge to existing provision, let alone to expansion and increasing capacity.
“It is clear that decreasing providers’ income, at a time of acute demand, is a strategy that would fail,” Sandiford said.
