Staff shortages are now a national crisis

[Confusedofbritain]

Staff shortages across many sectors is now a national crisis surely? I’ve given up expecting anything of this government, but why isn’t Labour beating them with a stick over this?

Some examples which affect me personally….

• Can’t go on holiday due to cancelled flight, cause by lack of ground staff.
• I work for NHS trust and we have closed a ward due to c 50% vacancies. We have plenty of money but can’t spend it. Now competing with other trusts paying increasingly high golden handshakes.
• Tried to book restaurant for Tuesday birthday. Not possible as all places shut Monday and Tuesday due to short staff (esp chefs).
• Poor service when we do go out. Staff look frazzled.
• Can’t get a builder to do an extension. Often not bothering to quote. Builder friend can’t keep labourers and brickies. Paying increasingly high wages but getting poached.
• Window fitter quoted me 2x higher than 2019 (for a much smaller window!) probably because they’re so busy and can’t increase capacity due to lack of staff. So prices have gone up by 100%.
• Long delay in discharge for father from hospital, due to long waits for care package (caused by staff shortages). He was in hospital a lot longer than necessary and declined hugely as result.

It’s largely caused by Brexit, partly people retiring or changing livelihood during Covid…:.but why wasn’t this anticipated and what are we doing about it?

I want to see posters EVERYWHERE encouraging people to consider NHS careers. It’s a rewarding career, but impossible to cope and keep going with so few staff. We are escalating to NHS England constantly, saying we need a national solution. It’s beyond critical, but I’m not confident that there is a national drive to sort this out.

The economic and social consequences of ignoring this massive structural issue will be disastrous!

We will soon have to contend with AI as well, which in some cases will alleviate the issues we have, but there will be less low skilled jobs available. We do need to move to a high skills, high wage model, because AI is here already (in my house) and is set to expand at an alarming rate. I wonder how many people are prepared for the future?

If you are not working, you should be retraining or in full time education. Sitting at home unless you are severely disabled or very ill shouldn't be an option for anyone at all.

There are lots of schemes to help people into the Labour market

for example, a lot of NHS mental health trusts run a scheme for SMI patients who want to get into work. They offer intensive support. It’s called the Individual Placemebt Support Service. This is one of the transformation services funded under the NHS long term plan. Success rates are 50% in sustained long term employment, showing that with the right support people with severe mental health illness can become happily employed. There’s also the Richmond fellowship, emmaus and many other third sector orgs doing this great work.

www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/case-studies/severe-mental-illness-smi-case-studies/individual-placement-and-support-offers-route-to-employment-for-people-with-severe-mental-health-conditions/

however these services are at risk because they’re struggling to recruit the support staff needed!

DD applied for a nursing degree and didn’t get a place - following year she’s been offered an unconditional placement, she turned it down for a different degree.

Can’t have it both ways.

Employers will always struggle to find employees if they are offering bad working conditions. Even if offering high pay rates, staff turnover will be very high and eventually lead to people refusing to work for them.
Treat people like humans and not robots. Let them have proper breaks, lunch times, sick leave and holidays. The bare minimum that’s needed to keep staff.

Exactly.

@Swayingpalmtrees
" Working can be GOOD for poor mental health, it can give direction, purpose and hope to someone's life. It certainly kept me going in peak lockdown. "

But you do understand that other people's mental health difficulties are not the same as yours - and what works for you doesn't necessarily work for others ?

It’s a viscous circle though. Very difficult to offer your staff a stress free environment and excellent conditions, when you’re chronically short staffed. No matter how much you try as a manager and want to be compassionate. Everyone has to work harder when there are fewer staff. Or close services… like the ward closure and restaurant closures mentioned in the OP

Work min wage more or less to be a HCA on a busy, understaffed ward working unsociable long hours and having to pay to park or pay ££££s training to be a nurse? No thanks you're alright. The jobs are hideously unappealing and to those they do appeal to, financially or academically inaccessible. Posters won't sort any of that out.

This is my experience at the moment too. I've just been made redundant after the company I worked for closed down. I have two degrees and lots of experience but a lot of jobs being advertised either:

• require very specific skills and experience and will have a relatively small pool of applicants for that reason

• or, offer very poor conditions/low salary/require full flexibility i.e. even a receptionist/centre manager type role in the charity sector wanting you to work shifts that change every week, office based 40 hrs a week and they'll pay you up to £20k depending on experience...

my favourite of the "we should train our own!" comments I've seen recently is on doctors - yes, that won't take long, will it?

Too many, dare I say it, are just bloody work shy. Pure and simple.

The example set by our PM doesn't help.

Given how long working life is the model of train as x teens/early 20s and stay in that area for 45 years is long gone. Lots of careers benefit from life experience. Careers like occupational therapy etc. Retraining in your 30s or 40s shouldn’t be so difficult. Still got years left to work.

Not training enough of our own people for years.
Relying in people trained overseas, now they have left.

We need to endure and train people, across lots of sectors including people who are on low wages who are more than capable of doing stuff that isn't NMW.

Someone commented that chefs wages were rising, and rightly so they have been under paid for years. Pay people a decent wage, give them fixed hours, none of your zero hour contracts and get better childcare provision to enable more people to work.

Because :-

: I can only apply for jobs in accessible building, near accessible parking spaces. Which limits what I can apply for. However I am applying for any admin jobs, from starter jobs to Prince qualified project manager work. Happy to learn any and all new skills.

: I don't get offered interviews when I should legally automatically get one, due to the two tick scheme. I later found out one job was given to someone else they knew who wasn't as qualified as me. No feedback from any of this missing interviews and I can't push it, in case another job comes up in these places.

: Panel member at one place said ableist things to me during the interview. I smile and address every point . I hear nothing further which does not surprise me as she was so prejudice again my wheelchair, even though other panel member said I would be getting a call back for the second stage interview!

I am trying. Just need someone to give me a chance.

As you tell me your work is crying out for employees. Give me the details. I need a job, you need more workers.

ps. I can no longer do cleaning, shop, bar, restaurant work due to my chair and I drop things. In case that is suggested again.

Yep. Years of treating of people like crap has come home to roost. People wonder why the workforce was so keen to stay home under lockdown 1 ….. it’s very simple for a lot of ‘mere employees’, staying at home on 80% of pay was financial hard, but so much easier and nicer than work. Can’t blame them and I was extremely jealous of them!

Anyone want to work 15 hour days 6 days a week with just two breaks of 20 mins if you are lucky enough to be able to run to the loo, your locker or car and back to break room and then in reverse again back to work. - doesn’t exactly leave much time to eat does it? Fancy having had two years of holiday and bank holidays cancelled because the govt ruled employers could do so - yet your boss still manages to go on four holidays a year? Or, your sick, but your boss refuses to allow you time off, basically saying come in or your fired. No rights if you’ve not worked there for two years. ..or perhaps you just want to work somewhere that asks you to do the impossible. Welcome to the world of work.
This isn’t just unique to the nhs. It’s everywhere. It’s basic stuff, but employees realise they no longer have to put up with such awful conditions, and if the want to, they can get the same crappy conditions for higher pay elsewhere.

Just correcting this one... you get the NHS training fund now (think it's like £5k a year) for Allied Health Professions, plus you can get student loans even if it's a second degree.

NHS recruitment needs a rocket up its arse though - I've got an interview next week for a job that had a closing date back in April!

You can add Early Years and childcare to the long list. It's been bad for a while, now. Nurseries are struggling to recruit and many childminders have closed their doors. They've been deliberately underfunded for years.
Nurseries are turning parents away at the door because they don't have enough staff for the day.

Those talking about expensive childcare should ask the Government why they've deliberately underfunded the sector for years.

People are creatures of habit with responsibilities. The advertising must be fully flexible but paying minimum means no one applies. I looked on local supermarket earlier in case anything for DD going to sixth form but it was 16-24 hours any shift between 6.30 am and 10.30pm when there’s no transport. If it was advertised as 9-5 Sunday or 6-10.30pm 5 evenings a week then it would open up who could apply eg students, mum wanting to work when husband home to avoid childcare.

Yes you can get a second loan if its healthcare- but at the same time it's the cost of being out of the workplace for a few years isn't it. If you're retraining later in life and have a mortgage etc it's hard to get by on minimal money. Many have to do a year access course as well to evidence recent study; you can get a loan if eligible, but if not that's £1500 or so. The demands of a student in healthcare just isn't achievable without a well established support network if you have children- something not everyone has. Its just not that desirable anymore to a lot of people.

@Tanith yes, that is my experience locally too. So many have closed. Ugh it’s a very long list and I don’t think there is a sector that remains untouched. Except perhaps acting/ singing and media etc, which is always oversubscribed with willing participants

To be fair we can't expect the government to pay for everything, it is not a magic tree that grows funds for everyone. Private companies should be able to fund and train their future workforce and take ownership of their work force, including conditions and not do the bare minimum. Too many sectors for too long have relied on cheap labour from elsewhere to get by, and have raked in the profits without a thought for conditions or the work force. This is not ALL government policy. Which is why going back to op's first point, the reason Labour are not kicking up more, is they know it would be no different under their leadership.
The issues are baked in so to speak. Magnified by the pandemic and the war.

Companies are going to have to start being more flexible and pay better. I have worked across various industries and many jobs could be divided up better to allow flexible working hours for those with school age children.

Many of the physically demanding jobs aren't suitable for those with disabilities or most elderly people. Lots of British workers also have a poor attitude to working. When I worked in catering we would have many come on to a shift and leave part way through.

What is the solution? I really don't have a clue. Work has to pay for a start. People shouldn't be working 50+ hours a week and still be unable to pay for basics. In my opinion housing costs are one of the biggest issues. My grandparents worked in a factory and a care home. They shared childcare by alternating day and night shifts. They did this to be able to afford a nice house and holidays each year. Most people in factory and care work now can't afford to get a mortgage. It all seems so pointless to work so hard to lose benefits you are entitled to and still not get ahead.

I can see us moving to a US model of people having two or three jobs in the future. Many more careers than just one that has prevalent and employers are going to have to offer much more flexibility if they are to have employees that are willing to stay. School hours, over 60s retainment schemes, training and great conditions to attract the new recruits, fun and well being ethics along the lines of what we now see in Shoreditch. Free food, decompression suites, counselling on demand, ballpits etc.

Brexit hasn't helped but it's not just though. Where I live 2 nurseries have closed their under3s unit.
They can't get the staff, not due to Brexit but due to the rubbish wages. With the cost of living rising the nursery staff can't live on minimum wage.
Not sure if it's the same for other sectors too.

Quite a few now advertise specific shifts which is good, but yes just not feasible for many when they say must be available between x and y 7 days a week.