Hi Senga, can you help me, what can I use to help assess how many staff are required?

Answered by Senga Currie

Hi J,

This is a question I often get asked. The number of staff required obviously depends on the type of services you are delivering , the skills and experiences of your staff and the levels of dependency of your service users. You also need to consider planning for holidays, unplanned absence and if you work in Care at Home, distances and how long it takes for your staff to travel. This sounds like a huge amount to think about especially as the onus is on you as the provider to assess the dependencies of the people in your care.

There are dependency tools available, it is up to you to choose which one you use, but make sure it is going to work for your service.

If you work in a care home, (sorry you haven’t said what your service is). The assessment should be used every month, or earlier if the persons’ conditions changes e.g. after a hospital admission or during an illness. Collate all service users results and use the calculator specific to the tool to inform you of number of staff that is required.

The results should be on display for anyone to view, filed each month and kept neatly to demonstrate compliance.

Hope this is useful.

Best wishes.

Senga