When interviewees were asked about the sustainability of the care sector, the first topic that came to mind was economic sustainability.
While environmental sustainability is a concern, for the most part it was deprioritised when Covid came along. However, due to the cost-of-living crisis, some environmental sustainability measures have been borne out of necessity; for example, the need to cut energy costs has resulted in many care homes looking into energy saving measures.
Economic sustainability
The risk of going out of business is a reality, particularly for smaller organisations. Considering staffing and funding issues, a small number of service providers (9%) indicated in our survey that they are no longer able to continue delivering services. This is more prevalent among small companies (14%) and in the South West (25%).
The is no silver bullet for care providers to become more economically sustainable. The top three ways that respondents believe would make it easier for providers to be more economically stable are investment in technology (42%); better integration across NHS and social care (39%); and bigger, specialist providers (38%). Hopefully, the recent increase in the national living wage is indicative of the positive changes to come. However, for small companies with one to nine employees, investment in staff training and leadership are the top solutions.
“Over the last year, there are three providers of children and young people services in Scotland which have closed, which in clear terms is 10% of services that have closed their doors. Without exception, that’s been because of the financial pressures, which could not be sustained,” says Adrian Hayer.
Because the sector is so far behind in terms of sustainability, we can make some changes quite quickly.
Being more environmentally sustainable has several perceived advantages for the care sector, from cost savings to recruitment.
“Good environmental recycling is a more efficient use of resource which plays back into our cost-saving agenda. Green agendas, as long as it’s not greenwashing and it’s not superficial, is another differentiator for recruitment purposes. As a charity, it’s another differentiator for us in the marketplace against a private sector provider, to gain a competitive edge. If you think about the fuel bills, we put all our lighting onto LEDs last year, and we’ve got motion sensors for all the rooms that they’re in, meaning we’re not having lights on even on a weekend, which is a big help,” says Mark Lee.
Even so, environmental sustainability is not being prioritised. As Pauline Shepherd points outs: “Before Covid, a lot of care homes were getting into green initiatives like recycling, but Covid came along, and it’s been pushed down in priority; there have been some green initiatives, but nothing that I could put my hand on and say, that’s going really well. And there doesn’t appear to be any pressure coming from the Department [of Health and Social Care] to encourage or to incentivise care homes or home care services.”
Greater use of technology (57%) and using renewable energy are the most frequently cited ways that would make it easier for care providers and the care sector to be more environmentally sustainable.
Jonathan Freeman works for an organisation committed to becoming net zero by 2050 and says there are some “easy wins” which the sector could enact quickly.