The UK population is ageing, and with this shift comes a growing demand for care services.

Wes, runs a domiciliary care service for older adults, and has asked his staff how they can meet the growing demand on their service. Currently, they cannot take on any new service users as their care workers are at maximum capacity and are finding it difficult to recruit new workers in the local community. He asks his staff to keep in mind the aim of their service, which is enabling people to stay in the place they feel most comfortable – their home.

Recruitment Manager, Anais, has a parent who receives home care and has noticed how her she does not require as much support as some of her peers as she has a neighbour who does her shopping for her, and a friend who is a cleaner and comes round on her way back from work on Friday and helps her clean the house. Anais speaks to Wes and tells him she thinks they should be encouraging informal care and providing support and incentives for informal carers, as a way of reducing the workload of home care workers and allowing the service to take on new service users.

1. What do you think about this idea?
2. How could the domiciliary care service encourage informal care in the community?

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