CARE company Tricuro, which is owned by BCP and Dorset Councils, is said to currently have no staff vacancies – apart from in its reablement team.

The situation is extremely rare in the care sector which is known for its vacant posts and high turnover of staff.

Councillors were told that in addition to having no vacancies the business has also managed to cut its sickness rate and is currently offerings all its staff additional training – with a budget of more than £110,000 for online and face-to-face courses by the end of July.

Interim director of corporate services at Tricuro, Rich Warren, told the health and adult social care overview committee, that he believed the good news was attributed to the company showing its investment in staff, including recently setting up a training centre within one of its care homes.

The company has been rated at 7.75 out of ten in a staff survey for its training offer.

Mr Warren said he was also hopeful of improving recruitment where there were vacancies in the reablement team with a recent wage increase, which had been partly supported by BCP Council, and a refined and supported career package with new appraisal and supervision policies.

He said that overall Tricuro usually had around 10 per cent of its staff involved in learning and development at any time, using a hybrid model of face-to-face tuition and online learning.

Fellow director Kim Devlin told the meeting of successes in CQC inspections and achieving Gold Standard Framework awards for several of its care homes.

She said that keeping people safe remained the highest priority of the business with a staff survey revealing that 99per cent would speak out if they witnessed any form of abuse.

The meeting heard that staff sickness at Tricuro had dropped from 5.4 per cent in January 2022 to 4.7 per cent, about half the average rate reported at local councils.

Christchurch councillor Lesley Dedman congratulated Tricuro on its successes, especially the drop in sickness levels which she said was ‘remarkable’ at this time of year.

The meeting heard that talks are currently underway for BCP to become the sole shareholder of Tricuro, with Dorset Council having left the partnership which was originally set up in 2015, to start its own organisation, Care Dorset.

Councillors were told that the change to sole control was expected to take place by the end of this financial year.

The last accounts to Companies House, to March 31st, 2022, show that Tricuro then had an annual turnover of £43.4million, with revenue shown as £32.1million.