Fewer Vacancies Doesn’t Mean Your Staffing Problems Are Solved

Every shift on next week’s rota has a name against it. Recruitment has improved, fewer posts are vacant and the immediate pressure of finding cover has eased.

That is welcome progress. But before describing the workforce as stable, it is worth asking how those shifts are being covered, and whether the arrangements can last.

Responding to the latest Skills for Care workforce report on 14 October, the Health Foundation warned that falling vacancies sit alongside slowing workforce growth and continuing recruitment pressures. The message for individual providers is equally practical: a vacancy figure can tell you something useful without telling you everything you need to know.

For care leaders, understanding staffing means looking at the experience, capability and working patterns behind the rota.

Find out how much cover depends on overtime

Overtime can provide flexibility for employees and help services respond to short-term gaps. The concern is whether additional hours have become essential to keeping ordinary operations running.

Review who is working beyond their contracted hours, how frequently this happens and whether employees feel able to decline. Ask what the rota would look like if everyone worked only their usual hours.

That question can reveal a gap hidden by the willingness of existing staff to do more. It also helps distinguish occasional cover from a continuing need for additional capacity.

Speak with the employees involved. Some may welcome extra work; others may feel responsible for preventing colleagues or people receiving care from being let down. Their reasons matter when assessing whether the arrangement is sustainable.

Look at who repeatedly comes to the rescue

Most managers know which employees are likely to answer the phone when a shift needs covering. Their reliability is valuable, but it can make the organisation increasingly dependent on a small number of people.

Review how extra shifts, difficult visits and last-minute changes are distributed. Consider whether your most experienced workers are also informally supporting new colleagues, resolving problems and answering questions throughout the day.

A rota records hours. It may say much less about the responsibility carried within those hours. Thank those employees, but also examine what their repeated involvement tells you about the service. If one person taking leave creates a major operational problem, you need a plan to share knowledge and strengthen cover.

Check the skills available on each shift

Having enough people available does not automatically mean the right capabilities are available when needed. Review the experience and assessed competence required for the people being supported. Consider whether staff have appropriate preparation for their allocated responsibilities and whether they can obtain advice when circumstances change.

A new employee may be fully recruited but still need induction, supervised practice or further assessment before taking on particular duties. Managers should account for that development time when planning capacity.

Our resource, Great Care Starts With Great Recruitment, provides a useful starting point for reviewing recruitment. The next management question is how each appointment becomes part of a capable, supported team.

Examine continuity from the person’s perspective

A filled rota may still involve frequent changes in who delivers care. Ask how often people receiving support see unfamiliar workers and whether staff have enough time and information to understand their preferences, communication and routines.

Listen to feedback from individuals, relatives and employees. Repeatedly explaining the same needs or introducing another new worker may reveal instability that staffing totals do not capture.

Where changes are unavoidable, examine the handover and introduction arrangements. Continuity also depends on making sure relevant knowledge follows the person across shifts and visits.

Understand your use of agency staff

Agency staff can provide essential cover and valuable expertise. Leaders should understand which needs they are meeting and whether those needs are temporary or recurring.

Review agency hours alongside expenditure. Costs alone may be affected by changing rates, so they do not always show whether dependence is increasing or decreasing.

Look at where agency cover is concentrated, how often the same workers return and how induction, information sharing and competence checks are managed. If a particular shift routinely requires external cover, investigate what makes it difficult to fill through the usual team.

That may involve working patterns, recruitment, absence or the way the role has been designed. The response should follow the cause.

Keep recruitment standards clear under pressure

Urgency can make a promising applicant feel like the answer to several immediate problems. Managers still need a consistent process for assessing suitability and completing the checks relevant to the role.

The Daily Round has covered the Care Inspectorate Scotland’s safer recruitment self-evaluation tool, which offers a prompt for providers to examine their recruitment practices. Providers should use guidance appropriate to their location, service and responsibilities.

Build realistic recruitment and induction times into workforce planning. A staffing plan that depends on someone starting before necessary checks or preparation are complete needs to be reconsidered.

Review whether capacity matches the work

Ask whether staffing assumptions still reflect the care being delivered. People’s needs may have changed, travel may take longer or employees may be managing additional recording, coordination and communication.

Compare planned work with what happens during actual shifts. Speak to staff about missed breaks, rushed handovers, delayed records and tasks regularly carried into their own time.

These conversations should help you identify where the plan needs adjustment. Employees should be able to describe pressures without assuming that doing so will be treated as evidence of poor time management.

Bring the information together

A useful workforce review considers vacancies alongside overtime, agency hours, turnover, absence, skills and continuity. Employee feedback and the experience of people receiving care help explain what those figures mean.

Look for patterns over time and differences between teams, locations or shifts. An organisation-wide improvement can hide a persistent problem in one part of the service.

Filling vacancies is an achievement worth recognising. The next test is whether your team can deliver the care required, take leave, access support and manage ordinary changes without the same people repeatedly absorbing the pressure.

That is the picture leaders need before deciding their staffing problems are solved.

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