HIRING good staff is the biggest challenge facing the care industry, businesses say.

The comments came at the recent Care Show Bournemouth at the BIC, which drew 170 exhibitors and hundreds of visitors. Among the exhibitors were Bournemouth-based care industry recruiter Quantum Recruitment and its long-standing client, Rob Cousins, director of Affinity Care Homes in Bournemouth.

Jacqueline Entwistle, managing partner at Quantum Recruitment, pictured with Jodie Webster and Mr Cousins, said: “It was really interesting chatting with Rob about the industry’s biggest issue which is the recruitment of quality staff.

“The private sector is currently experiencing unprecedented growth in the building of new residential and nursing homes due to an ever increasing ageing population. This is in turn causing a gap in care providers being able to find the numbers of quality staff that they require.”

She added: “A lot of care homes are struggling with high staff turnover, unsuitable staff and often rely too heavily on agency staff.”

Mr Cousins said: “We pride ourselves at Affinity Care Homes on our level of staff retention but that is only because we work very closely with Quantum Recruitment in ensuring that we recruit quality staff who want to work for us, staff who are trainable and actually suit our business.”

Quantum Recruitment is a sister company of the Quantum Group.