PROFESSIONAL , TRAINING & RECRUITMENT Braemar Finance Business Barometer – Care Homes

Braemar Finance recently conducted its latest Business Barometer research which examines current Care Home sector trends and the view of business-owners about a range of issues, from the cost of doing business to recruitment and retention

In this piece, we get under the skin of the data to find out more

Cost Of Doing Business

The cost of energy has had – by some distance – the most impact on Care Homes’ income with 56% selecting this option Staff pay rises (16%) supply costs (12%) and fuel increases (10%) are the next most cited

Unsurprisingly 89% of Care Homes said they were taking measures to reduce their energy use, including, in order of most popular measures:

Turning off the lights overnight

Replacing equipment with more energy-efficient alternatives

• Looking at alternative heating and energy sources

Lowering the heating

Changed energy supplier

Insulating your building

Unfortunately, a quarter of Care Homes confirmed that they had considered closing their business as a result of rising costs and 33% said that they had made redundancies because of the impact of rising costs

Seven out of 10 firms surveyed admitted to passing on additional costs to their customers either partially (60%) or fully (10%)

RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION

Looking at staff vacancies and the impact of the recruitment and the retention crisis 61% of Care Homes replied that they currently have a vacancy to fill the highest of all the professions polled A further 49% said they ve struggled to fill vacancies in the past 12 months

When asked how long it took to hire a candidate results indicate it typically takes up to four months:

Less than a month

Sixty percent of Care Homes say there is a skills crisis in the sector and a similar number are currently finding it more difficult to fill vacancies

Looking ahead to recruiting in the future, respondents said:

I won’t have a problem recruiting adequately skilled staff 33 50%

I will struggle to recruit because there is a skills gap in my sector

43 00%

I will struggle to recruit because there is a skills gap in my region

10 50%

I will struggle to recruit because there is a skills gap in the UK

13 00%

THE UK’S ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

The majority (93%) of Care Home businesses surveyed responded that they were either very (43%) or somewhat (50%) concerned about the UK s current economic performance Despite this 16% expected to expand in the coming 12 months against 21% who think they will contract; 62% hope to stay the same – only 1 5% think they ll close their door permanently