A new free-to-use app has been launched to help workers in the crisis-hit care sector look after their own wellbeing.
The pioneering product, which will be initially accessed by around 140,000 workers,is the brainchild of Merseyside-based Flourish, part of The Progress Group, which provides specialist training and staffing solutions to raise standards and the quality of care across adult and children’s social care.
The crucial helping hand comes amid bleak figures from Skills for Care which show there are currently 111,000 vacant posts in the adult social care sector with common factors behind people leaving the profession ranging from burnout and stress to financial worries.
The Fostering Network’s data also shows that 53% of foster carers have reported they were experiencing burnout or poor wellbeing, while 33% of former foster carers cited this as contributing to them deciding to stop fostering altogether.
In light of such worrying statistics, the Flourish Wellbeing app has been launched to offer personalised wellbeing support, helping workers in these sectors build resilience with tailored tools and resources to help address the issues they have identified.
Built into Click Learning, it provides personal, practical tools, and tips, all tailored to the user, bringing everything together in one place: a wellbeing tracker, trigger predictor, action planner, and expert advice.
And,the more they use the app, the more personalised their advice and guidance,with areas covered including sleep, finances, anxiety, relationships, and healthy eating.
One of our priorities with this app is to help the people we already support through our training platform be retained within their sector by helping them feel more able to cope with the challenges they face, meaning better outcomes for the people they support
“The organisations we work with are well aware of the need to look after the wellbeing of their colleagues,” said Sarah Stark, senior account manager at Flourish.
“But,unfortunately, funding and resources aren’t always available to help with this.
“So,the idea behind Flourish Wellbeing was to provide this for free within an app they can stay in contact with and use when they need it.
“If they have had a really hard weekend,for example, they know that there is something there which can help them find more information, videos to watch or try some practical strategies to work through those challenges they’re facing.”
She added: “We know that people within the care sector are experiencing levels of stress and burnout, which, in turn, is causing a high turnover rate, with the care sector in particular having a vacancy rate three times that of the wider economy.
“There are currently 111,000 vacant posts in the sector, so we cannot afford to continue losing carers to burnout.
“One of our priorities with this app is to help the people we already support through our training platform be retained within their sector by helping them feel more able to cope with the challenges they face, meaning better outcomes for the people they support.”