A major care home provider is believed to be the first in Scotland to scrap 12-hour shifts and offer staff flexible hours and a four-day working week.

Renaissance Care, which employs 1200 workers, said the changes were being made in direct response to rising staff turnover during the pandemic across the sector.

Louise Barnett, managing director at Renaissance Care said care work was traditionally a job where "you do your shifts, you do your hours" but said the sector had to learn to be flexible in order to retain staff.

A recent Audit Scotland report warned that care services were nearing crisis point due to staff burnout and high vacancy rates, which had been exacerbated by the pandemic.

It found that a fifth of staff do not have a permanent contract while 13% work more than 50 hours a week and was critical of the lack of career progression in the sector.

The company will implement a 5% pay rise for all staff from Monday, as part of a pledge to become a Living Wage employer.

The Herald:

Care home staff will now have the option to tailor their hours to achieve a better work-life balance, while office staff will have the option to move to a four-day working week. 

Ms Barnett said: "Our staff turnover increased during the pandemic

"Thankfully it's coming down now but it really did increase during that. We are also experiencing challenges in recruitment and the recent Audit Scotland report really did highlight the challenges we were experiencing.

"The pandemic has changed society as a whole. We went to our staff and asked 'what would make you happy?'

The Herald:

"That was confirmed when you went out to all the staff groups. In our sector care and nursing staff traditionally work long hours and managers work Monday to Friday 9pm to 5pm.

"What came back overwhelmingly was that people wanted more flexibility, whether that was a better work/life balance and just wanting to spend more time with their families.

"We just wanted to devise a plan not just to thank our staff but to keep our staff with us.

"We can't say that we value our residents and relatives if we don't have that same concern and respect for our staff."

The company owns 16 care homes in Scotland including one in Glasgow, two in Uddingston and four in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

"I can see any other care providers who have done this, it's very much out there.

"We have very much been a sector where you do your shifts, you do your hours, that's just the way it's been. A lot of our nurses have come from hospitals and there is no ability to be flexible.
"We've just looked at the whole model and we have to learn to be flexible. 

"Times have changed, the market has changed so we have to change. We are a people-intensive business and we have to put people at the heart or what we do.

The firm has also pledged to introduce menopause staff training, free sanitary products and free exercise classes and is upgrading all care home staff rooms.

It is also investing £500k on its operational management and accounting systems to cut down on paperwork throughout shifts. 

Ms Barnett added: ""For our residents to be well cared for we have to care for our staff."