Unemployed to get driving lesson discounts as part of plan to tackle worklessness

A care-giver helps her client down some stairs
The health and social care sector is chronically understaffed - DMP/E+

Care providers will offer discounted driving lessons to the unemployed as part of a plan to tackle the worklessness crisis.

A new coalition will see training for those out of work and new incentives, including subsidised insurance and eBike schemes, offered to new recruits to help plug growing gaps in the workforce.

Experts said Britain’s 9.4 million “missing workers” – who are currently economically inactive – could help to rebuild a struggling health and social care sector.

The sector is facing major shortages of staff, with 131,000 existing vacancies and projections that 1 million more workers will be needed within the next 15 years.

Under the plans, Cera, which provides home healthcare, will set a target for 10 per cent of new recruits added to its almost 10,000-strong workforce over the next year to be people returning to the workforce after a period of economic inactivity.

The firm will also create mobility schemes to help people travel for work, offering them subsidised driving lessons, car insurance, or cycling and eBike schemes.

Recruiters have found that many applicants who could take on care roles are unable to drive, and unable to afford other forms of transport.

The coalition will see Cera, the UK’s largest healthtech company, work with Government schemes and national and local training and recruitment bodies, such as Skills for Care, People Plus, Maximus, Beam, Restart and the Work and Health Programme.

Together, they will identify suitable candidates, and give them the practical and emotional support they need to get started in a new career in home healthcare.

The company said it was spearheading a drive to create jobs for thousands of economically inactive and unemployed working-age adults – arming them with tech and digital skills required in modern delivery of care.

Care workers need to be able to collect data and log notes about what medications patients are on, in order to feed algorithms that link up with GPs and hospitals, providing warnings that health is deteriorated.

A driving instructor assesses his student
Discounted driving lessons are aimed at upskilling potential carers - iStockphoto

Cera’s systems also include apps so family members can regularly check on care, seeing how long carers visited, what medicines have been administered and any concerns.

The health and social care sector will need approximately 1 million new workers within the next 15 years to support a rapidly ageing population, with half a million new workers needed in social care alone.

The company said it already had a strong track record recruiting and training those who were not currently working. In the last quarter, 25 per cent of new recruits taken on were previously unemployed.

The new scheme will also promise new workers comprehensive support to make coming back to work easier – from mental health and wellbeing support, to menopause care, and help and resources for employees who care for children or elderly relatives.

Dr Ben Maruthappu, founder and chief executive officer of Cera, said: “Tackling economic inactivity and rebuilding our vital health and care system are two of the biggest challenges facing our Government.”

He added: “This innovative coalition is a true sector first, marking a collective commitment to solving these challenges.

“Not only will we help thousands of economically inactive people into meaningful new careers; we will also equip them with vital tech and digital skills, building the digitally empowered healthcare workforce of the future, and supporting our health and care system at a time it needs it most.”

Cera’s 10,000 carers and nurses provide technology-enabled services covering a population of 30 million people across the UK and Germany.

It delivers more than 2 million home healthcare visits a month on behalf of governments, insurers, and the NHS – equivalent in capacity to almost 100 hospitals.

Oonagh Smyth, CEO of Skills for Care, a workforce planning body, said: “The 131,000 vacancies in social care on any given day are 131,000 opportunities for people to start fulfilling careers in the sector.

“Cera’s important and innovative work supports the ambitions of the Workforce Strategy for adult social care that we launched in July, so we’re delighted to partner with them to attract thousands of new recruits out of unemployment and into a career in home healthcare, boosting the economy and contributing to the future of this vital sector.”