One of the country’s largest social care charities lost 155 members of staff last year because of government rules requiring carers to have received the Covid-19 vaccination.
The employees at the Order of St John Care Trust, some of whom resigned “in anticipation of the deadline” to get vaccinated, represented 3 per cent of the charity’s care home staff.
The figure is included in the charity’s annual accounts for the year to the end of March 2022, which were published last week.
The annual reports says “retention and recruitment have proved challenging” for the charity during the year and it spent “considerable time” working with colleagues who were undecided about whether to get vaccinated.
Staff turnover in 2021/22 was 41 per cent, up from 27 per cent the year before, according to the accounts, and most departing employees had been at OSJCT for less than a year.
The charity raised pay to the real living wage during the year, and said: “We will continue to lobby for the sector to be funded at a level which enables social care staff to be remunerated at an appropriate rate.”
Another social care charity, Hft, has previously warned that charities in the sector face an average financial shortfall of £300,000 a year, and said rising costs and challenges retaining staff have left the sector “teetering on a precipice”.
OSJCT’s accounts show that total income at the charity was £142.8m in 2021/22, up slightly from £142.6 in 2020/21.
Total spending also remained almost flat at £143.4m, compared with £141.6m the year before.
The total number of full-time and part-time staff at OSJCT, measured as headcount at the end of the financial year, fell by 7 per cent, from 4,555 to 4,236.
A spokesperson for the charity said: “As with many industries across the country at this time, recruitment is a significant challenge for the social care sector.”
They added that OSJCT “has taken a number of steps to address this challenge”, including promotional schemes to encourage people to consider a career in social care and a campaign to recruit more nurses from overseas, as well as pay increases since April.