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!

Brexit is coming home to roost.

I heard on the radio, that apparently a great deal of over 50s quite enjoyed not working over covid, and have retired early.

Now that I think about it, I know several over 50s who have taken early retirement in the last year.

There is NOT a lack of ground staff at the airports, the companies just don’t want to pay them!!!! 🤬
Night work £10.95ph (so through the night, unsociable hours)
Asda night work £12.60ph!!!!!!! People are moving jobs to keep up with high costs, if the airports paid them they wouldn’t have to move! My company made record profits after lockdown ended, whilst we had pay cuts, they haven’t reinstated the original pay!!! Plus we haven’t had a pay rise in 4/5 years!!!

PAY THE STAFF AND STOP BEING GREEDY WITH ALL YOUR MONEy!!!

Yep my bins are sat outside, uncollected, because of staff shortages. Hoping they get to them today as the weather is starting to warm up.

One of my DC has various medical referrals ongoing, they are all running weeks/months behind because of staff shortages. Looked into a few private options but even those are backed up weeks/months now due to not enough staff to meet enormous demand.

It’s only going to get worse, airport staff strikes are starting and there going to go full force this time, planes will be grounded everywhere. Hopefully the companies can sort staff pay to prevent that from happening.

Environmental and design professionals also having a massive skills crisis: engineers, landscape architects, ecologists, geologists, archaeologists, eia consultants etc Brevity has hit the industry hard. It takes years for people to gain these degrees (undergrad plus post grad needed for most) so there is no quick fix.

That's the kind of comment that tends to be made by people who just don't have any understanding of the complex reasons why people might be out of work. It sounds so simple, but the reality is anything but simple.

OP DS2 went into an NHS tech grad scheme during the first lockdown. It was one of the very few grad schemes that didn't get deferred or cancelled. He's had some great opportunities and a rapid rise up the scales. He has seen them absolutley haemorraging money to fill jobs with consultants because they can't recruit or retain enough people.

Very few supply teachers were I live. Assume they're very busy or many left due to such prolonged periods of no work/pay during lockdowns. Classes have had to be closed if teacher is absent. Head teachers ringing 100+ supply staff before securing one.

I've been posting about the critical shortage of teachers for years. That situation isn't getting any better and targets are going to be missed again this year. Recently I've seen threads about how posters are struggling to recruit school admin staff and TAs (which would normally be easy as term time school hours jobs for mums were highly sought after). The suggested issues there are the pay is too low compared to e.g. supermarket work, and also that with the increase in WFH, parents can now nip out to pick kids up from school/be around in the holidays so don't need a school-based job.

We're also in the middle of a critical shortage of exam invigilators. The issue there were that people who invigilated were often retired people who don't want to come into schools because of covid, in the two years of exams being cancelled, people have found other ways to make that extra bit of money invigilation brings, and that the pay is crap.

@TheRoadToRuin yes the NHS is a fantastic place to work right now as there are so many opportunities for staff. For example I’ve seen talented nurses qualify just before pandemic frogleap up the bands, taking on mgt responsibilities. It is concerning that we have lost a lot of experience, however for individual staff they are no longer constrained like they were and rapid career opportunities/ training opportunities abound.

Well I'd say employers need to consider women and flexibility for part time staff. My friend is a vet but wants to do school drop offs and so applied to the vets by the school, but nope they want someone 8.30- 6pm not 9-2.45. Wouldn't consider it.

Also opening up teaching aging to allow any degree holder to apply. There are many people who could make great teachers, but don't have the 2:1. A degree is a degree.

The NHS crisis isn't going to get much better, the government needs to bring back bursaries to fund training and / or allow student loans for those graduates who wish to retrain. Currently you would have to self fund a nursing degree/ paramedic etx and who can afford that??? Also bring in funding for final year med students.
It's really basic solutions that could make an impact in 5 yes - appreciate it won't make a difference now, but as the gov is only planning on spending money on the NHS after the next election.....

Covid definately was a wake up call, a huge amount of my colleagues have since decided to either leave and try something new or radically cut down their hours and l don't blame them.
Most Europeans who we worked alongside said even before Brexit they were only doing it temporary, to save money and then go back home, it was never their intention to settle here full time.
Employers have got away with rubbish working conditions for decades, and their attitude of if you don't like it leave, has now hit them where it hurts.
People are putting their quality of life and mental health above earning a few extra quid, its all about minimalism now and a much simpler way of life.

I have just retired from my part time job. Sick of going in and doing two jobs because they can't get staff. Someone else left the week before me and three others are taking early retirement this year. The great retirement.
People are realising life is too short to work forever. I'm so glad we put in our pensions and saved. I can take my work pension at 60 but have a private one for now. DH has a small business and is retiring at the end of the year.

Not sure if it’s related to covid / brexit / or what not.

But our local CAMHS have had all of their psychiatrists leave. They are struggling to find any to fill the positions. They had an emergency on call who also left.

1 adhd nurse is now running the full service…… ds was waiting 17 months on a waiting list BEFORE they all left. We now have an adhd nurse prescribing drugs for ds and we have been having a tricky time getting things right with it all.

Ds has multiple diagnosis’, one drug was aggravating another condition and so on, fair enough if they have no Drs. But I would prefer a consultant psychiatrist doing the prescribing / problem solving.

(No disrespect intended to the nurse)

No assessments for other kids are able to take place for the foreseeable, you are being put on a ‘holding list’, you can only see the adhd nurse for a review if you have a diagnosis and were already under them.

Same for educational psychologists, nationwide shortage and in the mean time, what do the kids / families do? Ds is already in special school and they had been having issues and wanted an EP in as all strategies had been exhausted, but they haven’t got one to call in at this current time.

Its all a shit show.

Lots of vets around here were from Eastern Europe. Same with dentists.

EE migration is complex. Many came for a fixed period to earn money to buy a house back home, with the intention of returning home. Some came to settle permanently but tended to be from the poorer EE countries.

So when Brexit hit people didnt apply for settled status and went home. Brexit has stopped the next wave who would typically have filled their roles coming.

Also opening up teaching aging to allow any degree holder to apply. There are many people who could make great teachers, but don't have the 2:1

You don't need a 2:1 to train to teach.

I've just looked at the recruitment site for my local NHS Trust. (They're even advertising for multiple recruiters.)

The pay scales are absolute crap. Full time administrator, £20-£21k. Biomedical scientists (registered) start on £24k. Urgent care porters £18k. So you'd need two salaries to be able to buy or rent a one-bedroom flat, which gets tricky the minute a child is born because all the jobs seem to demand shift work patterns which are a nightmare to fit around expensive childcare (if you can find it).

The same issue with imports is happening across Europe and probably the world. It's because the pandemic laid of many staff and they've not rerecruited.

We can recover from Covid, but we won’t recover from Brexit for a long, long time. Things were great before Brexir, now we have major staff shortages and yup, companies will have to pay more to hire U.K. workers. It’s a major shit show, but hey, we believed the lies and no one has benefitted except a few Tory pockets have been lined even more. As a country we are apathetic but I hope we won’t be at the next general election.

It's also brexit which would inevitably put up prices as we got rid of all the cheap labour.

I used to do quite a bit of work in Job Centres, you really have no idea of the type of people who are stuck on long term unemployment.

Low education, no self confidence, no fixed address, childcare issues, caring responsibilities, no customer skills, no transport, long term MH issues that they can't get treatment for, addictions, debt and no money to go a month without any pay should they start work.

Benefits are so low, there are very few who chose to sign on.

Do you really think that the long term unemployed could get SC clearance and work Airside and solve our travel issues? or perhaps become Health workers and fill the 110k vacancies in the NHS ? maybe could become lift engineers? IT technicians? Care workers? GP's? Vets? Police? etc etc etc.....

this idea there is a pool of 1 million skilled up motivated people, willing and able to work anywhere in the UK is crazy

I think the driving test shambles is also having am impact on recruitment.
I know several young adults (including my 2 DSs) who are waiting ridiculously long times for tests.
DS booked a test on the hebridean isle of Islay for Oct (which was the soonest available in the uk) we live in the Midlands. Pinning our hopes on an app (additional cost) to find something sooner and more locally.
One of my sons is a final year nursing student, having a driving licence would literally make his life so much easier. There were tests earmarked for keyworkers in covid ( and bless him, he worked on a covid ward in spring 2021) but despite emailing loads of times we heard nothing back.
It's got to affect the economy. If thousands of young workers can't drive.

It's also far worse in the south because low paid workers can't afford to live there.

Lots of reasons it's all shit at the moment