At our care home in Cambridgeshire, we are proud to give thanks to our our team for their daily efforts as people who work in the care industry.
Recent headlines have highlighted a care sector under pressure, with 165,000 vacancies needing to be filled. In a bid to raise awareness of careers in care as well as celebrating the people already working within the sector, one care sector technology platform is kicking off 2023 by calling on care staff to share the reasons they work in the industry.
By launching a dedicated awareness week to underpin the activity – #ShareWhyYouCare week, which is set to fall between 30th January and 5th February 2023 – the initiative calls for the 1.5 million people who work in adult social care to share why they’ve chosen a career in care, and help others appreciate the huge positives and great sense of reward.
The awareness week has been initiated by Care Hires, a temporary staffing management platform for the care sector, as it seeks to support the workforce across the industry.
Speaking of the initiative, Suleman Sacranie, Co-Founder of Care Hires, said: “So often, working in the care sector is termed as vocational and seen as a ‘calling’, and while there are millions of people working in care, we know first-hand that their reasons for doing so are often unshared, yet could provide a real source of connection, community and inspiration.”
He continued: “The care sector is under immense pressure. The understaffing, underfunding, need for more beds and rising costs are all contributing to yet another ‘once in a lifetime’ event, hot on the heels of the pandemic. We wanted to start 2023 with something positive to celebrate the staff who are rising to meet these challenges daily while raising awareness of the sector as a career path to those who may not have previously considered it. There are some incredible people working in care doing incredible things and we’d love to share their stories.”
Mavrick Feast, our Operations Manager, said:
“The words of Suleman Sacranie reflect the thoughts and feeling of the industry in an articulated way; Askham prides itself on standing by its ethos, striving to continually empower our teams to grow individually and promote excellence in care. There is no secret that recruitment within the industry has been and sadly remains to be a struggle. The resent pandemic has also seen a further strain added to the existing pressures.
As a community, Askham remains proud of the teams in all areas; we are proud to have a high team member retention rate and we are proud of the efforts of all team members to continue to recruit. We pride ourselves on offering excellent team benefit packages to ensure that team members feel valued; right through induction and in every step of their journey with us.
While working in the industry remains ideally as a vocation and we can appreciate what has been described by Suleman Sacranie, we also acknowledge that a love of the industry can grow; and we are proud of so many people with in our teams who join us and falling in love with care and make a profound a lasting impact to those who choose to reside in our homes.
This week we are sharing with our residents and teams how proud we are by giving our staff small token gifts and gestures of thanks for all their daily efforts. We are also excited to be getting everyone involved in sharing why they love to work in the industry from residents right through to our managers. The responses have been overwhelming.”
To engage with #sharewhyyoucare week, care sector staff simply need to add their thoughts to the hashtag, on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, focusing on the positive reasons behind their work and the difference they’re making. Care providers and, indeed, individuals are able to visit www.carehires.com/sharewhyyoucare to download a selection of social assets to help drive the messaging behind the awareness week and showcase their involvement.
At Askham Village Community, we’re always welcoming new residents and staff into our growing community. For further information, please contact 01354 740269 or visit our website.