Working at Buckingham Care Home

Lots of agency and overseas staff who lack skills or good English, so experienced staff end up covering for them all the time.

Most relatives raised concerns about the number of agency staff and overseas workers deployed at the service. They told us this impacted on the quality of care provided to their family member either due to a lack of skills and/or English language ability... Some staff felt they were always compensating for the lack of skills and experience of agency and/or overseas staff.

New and agency staff need upskilling but no details on training programmes or funded qualifications.

This had created a training and development need and the skills mix of the staff team was not always meeting the needs of people using the service... The management team shared information on how challenging it had been to obtain an appropriate skilled staff team at the service. They recognised the staff team required upskilling.

Staff concerns about agency staff providing poor care are not always listened to or acted on by managers.

A few staff felt their voice was not heard and the concerns they raised about the quality of care provided by agency staff and overseas workers had not been acknowledged by the management team.