Dundee City Council and the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership have written to home care staff advising them of “significant progress” in the review of home care services.
The letter, from health and social care partnership chief officer David Lynch, explains that, due to developments in the service, new shift plans will allow employees to remain on their existing work patterns.
They will not be asked to move to a split-shift system unless they have requested this change themselves.
A Dundee Health and Social Care spokesperson explained: “The review of homecare services considered shift patterns and models of delivery of the care at home services.
“It looked to strike a balance between the expectations of our valued workforce and the needs of service users, now and in the future.
“A lot has changed since the review was started. There has been progress on the remodelling of pathways to support people being discharged from hospital, along with remodelling around primary care and community services, and the development of integrated roles.
“Feedback from our workforce has been carefully considered and we have assessed the impact that people joining and leaving the service over the last year has had on delivery models.
“This all means that we can work with a range of shift patterns as we move towards future models of delivery.
“We have begun thinking more broadly about how we work across a range of services in the years to come to meet the demographic challenges of an ageing population and to ensure that we have services which support those who wish to remain in the community while managing a range of health and social care needs.
“We hope that this announcement brings to an end a period of uncertainty We will continue to work with our employees and trade union representatives to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities which lie ahead in delivering for the people of Dundee.”
Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership
The Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership brings together health and social care services for individuals and communities in Dundee.
Dundee City Council
Dundee draws skilled workers from a 60-minute catchment population of 640,000 and has a local population of over 140,000. The availability of a large pool of highly skilled labour is a key feature in the Dundee economy. Flexibility in the labour force is currently more prevalent in Dundee than in Scotland as a whole. All forms of labour market flexibility - part-time, temporary employment, self-employment and shift work - are widely operational within the city. Labour force stability in the city is excellent, enabling companies to plan with confidence. Labour turnover levels are less than 5% and absenteeism averages 2%.
