Tight local authority budgets are having serious effects on the delivery of social care, according to a Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) survey of recruiters in the sector.

The research found that 65% of the members of REC’s nursing and social care sector group, who responded said tight budgets were having a “dramatic effect”, while 35% said it was having “some impact”.

It found that recruiters thought the tight budgets would lead to poorer pay for social care workers (35%), would make recruitment “substantially” or “slightly more” difficult (87%) and would lead to agencies cutting corners (2%).

Peter Cullimore, chair of the REC’s nursing and social care sector group, says: “We must remember that 74% of domiciliary care are commissioned by local authorities is carried out by the independent sector. Yes, I do have sympathy for local authorities but they cannot continue to restrict the charges which care agencies can make to them and at the same time expect to have the highest level of service.”