A SOCIAL services director said it would be nice to see the same national debate about the UK’s shortage of carers as its shortage of lorry drivers.

Jake Morgan, of Carmarthenshire Council, said the care sector and those who worked in it were “a fundamental part of our infrastructure”.

He also felt the wider debate about social care funding had to be concluded quickly.

Mr Morgan was addressing cabinet members about ongoing pressures facing social care in the county and what was being done to mitigate them.

He thanked staff for their “extraordinary efforts”, and said the council was actually delivering more care than at any other time it knew of.

But his report to cabinet outlined the persistent and acute challenges the sector was facing.

It cited a letter sent by the Association of Directors of Social Services to the Welsh Government last month which said the situation was “starting to limit our ability to support some of our most vulnerable people in the community”.

The report outlined 10 factors, such as the reduction in European Union workers after Brexit, an increase in vulnerability and frailty among older people, a fatigued workforce, and more demand for domiciliary care due to a reluctance by more elderly people to go into residential care homes.

The council’s in-house domiciliary care service used to deliver 75% of care packages to those in need of support, with the rest provided by the independent sector. This figure dwindled to 25%, but is currently at 38% when re-ablement support was factored in.

Most of the in-house carers receive £11 per hour, but the service has 37 vacancies.

Mr Morgan said more carers were being recruited, that more people were being helped in the transition from hospital to home, and that the council was looking to develop carer apprenticeships.

He hoped that Hywel Dda University Health Board could secure more beds at Amman Valley Hospital, Glanaman, to ease the hospital to home pressures.

Carmarthenshire has 104 residents waiting for a domiciliary care package, half of whom are in hospital. A further 26 people in the community are waiting for a re-ablement package.

Meanwhile, there are 240 people with social work needs waiting to be assessed. Priority cases are given urgent attention.

There are currently 22 vacancies across adult social work, children’s social work and mental health social work – equating to nearly a fifth of the department’s workforce.

Council leader Emlyn Dole said the report made for some “stern and serious reading”, but that the council was doing all it could to address the issues.

Cllr Dole said carers were “extraordinary people”, and that many of them he had spoken to described their job as a calling.

A council scrutiny committee looked into the social care pressures last week. A frustrated Cllr Dorian Williams said it was the same story every year with the care sector.

“Little changes,” he said. “I hate it. I hate it. We just end up where we began every year – a raging storm.”