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!

It's having an impact all over the world, as is expected in the aftermath of a pandemic.

The problem with the UK is that right before the pandemic, we did Brexit.🤦‍♀️ Which resulted in the loss of huge numbers of skilled and qualified workers from the country. Now there is a worldwide shortage of talented workers and our pool is significantly smaller and less attractive than other countries.☹

We had an influx of cheap European labour, but for a variety of reasons most didn't pay much tax, but did depress wages for those at the bottom. During a period when between 400k and 1m EU citizens left the UK the tax and NI take went UP.
Between 2014/15 and 2020/21, the income tax and NI receipts of HMRC were; £271.1bn, £281.4bn, £296.3bn, £316.5bn, £329.0bn, £336.1bn and £333.5bn respectively.
For those angry about messages on the sides of buses, the dept of health and social care underspent by £395m each week in the 2021-22 financial year.

Behaviour like that will just get you cancelled. No party is seriously going to listen to anyone telling them that TW aren't women. You'd be out on your ear.

This is not the board for that discussion but over on the FWR boards some of us have detected that there is movement against this. People have been highlighting how the law protects single sex spaces and no, self ID is not a protected characteristic and have been speaking out. Like all causes we have to keep the pressure up, if facts and truth are on our side they will eventually out. Someone from transgender trends has just been awarded a BEM in the Queen's birthday honours, (much to the annoyance of the TWAW lobby, I imagine.)

I don't think many graduates (in any field) spend their lives long time unemployed. Far more of an issue are those that spill out of education with no qualifications at all.

More drivel from someone who is pushing an outdated party line. No suggestions on what could be done better. It may be rude to say so, but we have a real problem with the quality of intellect in the UK. Unless and until we think much much harder and deeper about how real and beneficial social change can be engineered without upsetting the whole applecart, then we are likely to repeat our mistakes.

I think we were better governed when we had a hard 11+, taken by everyone, and creamed off the clever ones to grammar schools and a tiny high powered university system where only the top 2.5% qualified. I disagreed with lots of politicians who came up that route in the 50s and 60s but they look like geniuses compared to today's shower.

One of you wrote 'with better education', well not enough staff especially at nurseries. I am a teacher but worked at a private nursery for 3 years around 2010. The other week I was supply teaching at a nursery within a school setting. They call it now EYFS setting. The staff was not sure to open up the doors at 8.40 because even with me not enough staff but students numbers are hitting the ceiling. 52 we had that day, 52. I couldn't believe it. I am not going to compare the quality to the private setting I worked at years ago, simply incomparable. Luckily the place had a huge garden.

yes, I agree with you.

Yes @XingMing there is a real problem with the quality of intellect in the UK. The framing of issues by media and subsequent polarisation of opinion has a lot to answer for. We seem to have as a society lost our ability to appreciate nuance, to negotiate and navigate complex issues properly. This is what’s so frustrating about the TWAW debate.

As for the skilled worker shortage, I feel that the lockdowns for a lot of us changed our perception of time and understanding of priorities. People who would have unthinkingly worked the treadmill of ever longer hours and more pressure to climb the greasy pole of career success are saying no. My neighbour is a case in point. Pre-pandemic, he had a corporate job with a decent salary and lots of pressure. Now he works in a cafe and has a lodger in his spare room. Is financially worse off but can cover bills and is thriving without the high stress job and commute. Life is too short. The average person only had 4000ish weeks on earth after all.

At the other end of the spectrum is a friend who worked 2-3 min wage jobs throughout the pandemic and is now too broken to work at all. Totally sick and burnt out. 😢

For too long, their prevailing view has been that the only way to motivate the 'haves' is to throw money at them, the only way to motivate the 'have nots' is to take money away from them.

Blair and his pushing everyone into unsuitable uni courses.

Blair was a real disappointment in this respect. There was a very good report on 14-18 education called the Tomlinson Report in the early 2000s which addressed many of the issues facing those young people who were not really cut out for university education but still deserved to have good educational opportunities provided for them. Blair didn't bother to implement it, and wanted to keep the 'Gold Standard' of A levels, and then send 50% to university.

Now a generation or two before a lot of perfectly able young people were deterred from even applying for university so I am not without sympathy in getting more to university, but we need to educate our whole workforce. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that apprenticeships have more or less collapsed. (Not that there was every much for women, except hairdressing!.)

Totally agree.

It isn't Brexit. It' because wages are crap and the Tories just raised the tax on work (NI increased hugely) so making work even less attractive. At a certain point, the amount people get from full time work is not worth it as they lose so much in benefits. The Tories have destroyed work.

I think there are some apprenticeships now other than Hairdressing but employers can be really picky, they need English and maths

YTS was good in some respects then cos would take them on

For years I have heard MPs and senior managers say we have to pay top people a lot of money or they will go elsewhere. Now it is lower-paid people going elsewhere the same rules are not supposed to apply.

I can never understand this - well paid people who already have more money than they know what to do with, need 'incentives' to earn more. Poor people at the bottom of the wages heap need a kick in the teeth.

If those who are used to the kick in the teeth are now voting with their feet then I am not sorry.

Weird because I’m desperate for a job and can’t get one ! Just get email after email saying unfortunately my application has gone no further ☹️☹️☹️

I posted similar upthread. Both my university age DC can't get work and have been applying for anything and everything (shops, cafes, bars, museums etc...) in and around a major UK city.
Their friends are in a similar situation.

It was announced last week that the Tories have overseen the highest net immigration ever (in 2021 during Covid when ironically nobody was allowed to leave the UK) so don't worry remainers, soon there will be another wave of cheap labour stolen from poor countries and working class people here will have their wages crushed again and have to work 3 jobs to make ends meet so you can continue to have your cheap (subsidised) lattes and fill your buy-to-lets!

I should say neither of my DC

How is this the fault of 'Remainers'?
Didn't the UK leave in Jan 2020?
Do people who voted remain all drink latte and own buy-to-lets?

So many questions...

I think we were better governed when we had a hard 11+, taken by everyone, and creamed off the clever ones to grammar schools and a tiny high powered university system where only the top 2.5% qualified. I disagreed with lots of politicians who came up that route in the 50s and 60s but they look like geniuses compared to today's shower.

I am not going to agree there. They only dealt with ~25% of the population. The others tended to get written off. There was a reason why SecMods as a whole were deeply unpopular, notwithstanding that there were some good ones. Once the OU started it satisfied the pent up demand from people who knew they could achieve more if given the chance.

BTW try reading the MN education boards and tell me whether you get the impression that Kent and Bucks which are still fully 11+ counties have a wealth of highly talented children coming through. I found it quite an eye-opener.

As for politicians back then - my impression is that there were more routes into Government - Local Government had more power and quite a lot of working people came up via Trade Union activities, so they had chance to learn the ropes.

Both my university age DC can't get work and have been applying for anything and everything (shops, cafes, bars, museums etc...)

Hve they any work experience?

DD started a shop job after her work experience age 14 - then a cafe/waitress job, and walked into a better retail job and also a night club bar (occasionally)

She now has 5 years work experience and walks into jobs without an issue.

Other DD the same, started on a paper round, then a burger van, now works in a sandwich shop and chip shop -

so don't worry remainers, soon there will be another wave of cheap labour stolen from poor countries and working class people here will have their wages crushed again and have to work 3 jobs to make ends meet so you can continue to have your cheap (subsidised) lattes and fill your buy-to-lets!

On the contrary we Remainers were quite happy to see people from the EU with similar standards to our own come, and not poach people from sub Saharan Africa or South East Asia, places which desperately need to hang on to their educated people. Put the blame where it lies, on Boris Johnson and his crap deal.

I live in Spain and that’s not true. People pay privately for things they would never have to in the U.K.

Yes but not in city retail or hospitality.

When they were 16/17, supermarkets always wanted 18+ due to alcohol laws etc. We were in and out of lockdown when they were 16/17 so very few opportunities in the usual places.
Having said that, my DC and their friends have between them, experience in a garden centre, nursery, chip shop, newspaper delivery and voluntary work.
They have also gained A'levels and foundation diplomas in that time.