A council is considering eliminating zero-hour contracts by 2021 to convince more young people to work in care.

It’s one of the proposals contained in a report which highlights the need to recruit and retain more staff.

Cllr Dafydd Meurig, Gwynedd Council’s new portfolio holder for adults, health and well-being told a meeting of the care scrutiny committee on Thursday: “The purpose of the new strategy is to deal with the nationwide issue of recruiting and retaining staff within the care sector.

“You can’t underestimate the importance of the work that they do and its all important that we look after the staff and treat them accordingly.”

He went on to say: “There’s no denying that our demographics are changing, there are more older people and the population is ageing. On the other hand, you have fewer young people available to care for them so that’s a situation that will only get worse unless we act now.

“The situation is even worse in the south of the county where the age balance weighs even further in favour of older people.”

Improving pay and conditions and improving the status and image of carers could help tackle the shortage, the report said.

As a result, the authority expects to have harmonised the salary levels of home care workers and that independent providers across Gwynedd will have the ability to award long term contracts to staff, thereby eliminating “zero hour” contract by April 2021.

See this week’s north editions for the full story, in shops and online on Thursday