Staffing boost at council care homes

Oct 20 2011 by Leona Greenan, Hamilton Advertiser

THIRTEEN new jobs will be created at council-run care homes across South Lanarkshire.

The move comes at a time when unemployment levels in the county decreased during the month of September by 544 people from the previous month.

Official labour market statistics show the fall from 9343 jobless people in August to 8799 last month.

The new posts come as a welcome boost to the county after councillors gave their approval for the jobs to be advertised at a meeting of the Social Work Resources Committee last week.

The total cost of additional staffing is said to be £270,252 including associated costs and will be funded from Social Work's revenue budget.

Officials say the additional posts will be created at Dewar House, Hamilton; Kirkton House, Blantyre; Canderavon House, Stonehouse; McWhirters, Larkhall; McClymont House, Lanark; and McKillop Gardens, East Kilbride. The jobs being advertised are for day and night social care assistants, day and night social care workers and domestics.

Councillor Jim Handibode, chairman of the Social Work Resources Committee, said: Our care home residents have changing needs and we are here to meet them. The council currently provide 267 care home places across our eight homes for older people.

They are regularly inspected and are independently found and graded as providing the highest quality care.

Our care homes have achieved and maintained customer service excellence awards and 12 best practice awards. We are committed to giving our residents the best possible care available and recruiting these new staff will allow us to continue that pledge.

Types of service provided at council care homes include dementia care and specialist care for frail older people. To provide the best quality of care, South Lanarkshires homes have dedicated units with care delivered by skilled and experienced employees for long and short term care.