Thread 23 Starmer - Reflux Remedy

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5319797-thread-22-starmer-running-up-to-local-elections?page=40&reply=144097823

That is indeed troubling.

If you take something away, then they need to do something to replace it.
We need care workers.
If the overseas visa route is closed, then they need to do something to encourage UK applicants.

Because care needs won't go away

We desperately need care workers. DM has just come out of hospital after waiting for 5 weeks for a care package to be put in place due to a shortage of them. Even then she’s only getting them twice a day when she needs three visits ideally.

Cooper suggested they are pairing this with increased pay, but where is the money coming from and how will they recruit more carers?

Immigration white paper is released tomorrow

I’m all for increased pay for carers, we really should be valuing the work they do much more highly. Instead they’re classed as unskilled workers (looking at you Alastair Campbell).

So is central government funding higher pay for care or not?

And what will they do about the existing gaps in service?

Some tit will suggest families (read: women) need to do more themselves.

The obsession with immigration numbers will be the death of this country. Just like Brexit, it drags all policy making down with it.

Stretched council budgets?

I don't know who officially sets carer's pay rates. There are many private providers - but I assume that a lot of them get money from local councils.

The unskilled worker label is so damaging

I think I am probably to the right of most here on immigration, but I assume the government will reserve the right to lift restrictions on entry depending on need. I don’t find Yvette Cooper’s stance particularly odd, you’ve got a constrained budget all across government.

If anything it shows the depth of absolute fuck up that the requirement for a degree in skilled labour was abolished by the Tories. Talk about undercutting. Who can be impressed by the figures post Brexit.

I also approve of language changes and a longer time to qualify for citizenship, along with greater enforcement on criminality being a bar to applying. This country should have very high standards.

The UK does need to do a lot more on asylum too. The budget for asylum hotels is very nearly the same as the MOD budget. That is a level we cannot afford.

The Tory Party should be utterly ashamed of delivering this mess. I note that Reform is now taking over old Conservative clubs. That’s going to continue clearly, as long as Badenoch and her “leadership” are present. Reform look more competent. The Tories should be terrified, except that they are dim enough to have elected a total no mark as their captain

Both are irrelevant in this instance. He’s been praised for being good at being a Foreign Sec. That’s good, don’t you think?

I have never taught a single student of any ability who has professed an ambition to go into care work. They know it's physically hard, mentally draining and very poorly paid. They assume it's a job for overseas workers and/or something people with few qualifications fall into when all else fails.

It's a feared future job . They attempt to work hard enough to get enough qualifications to avoid future care work.

This is a problem for an ageing country that seems to want to seal off immigration.

I think you are right bombastix,

https://bsky.app/profile/sundersays.bsky.social/post/3lov2vvwhrc2n

Health Secretary Streeting backed closure of the specific visa route: will need a workforce, recruitment, retention, pay plan. Casey Review is 2028. Sounds like social care,without bespoke visa, will be among sectors who can negotiate for visas, if evidence of shortage, contingent on training plans

Results, results. That is all anybody can be judged by (not including television quizzes… I would not wish to be judged by my pathetic attempts at Super Mario Kart)

Is it as bad elsewhere I wonder? I noticed on MAFS Australia (I know, guilty pleasure tv 😳) that one of the young women was referred to as an ‘elder care worker’. That show gets properly bitchy and either nobody used it against her or it was edited out…
She was a capable young woman in many ways.

Yes! Governments usually decide what a country needs as opposed to saying stupid stuff like “we don’t like Europe” or “foreigners can’t come in”.

I know, I know, it’s a revelation given we had at least five years of a government who did that…. Evidence based policy making will get you everywhere

That’s a really useful thread - thanks Duncin

I presume she was on MAFs to become rich and famous, mind , and leave her job behind.

Unless of course she was on there to find true love...!

Bit of both I think! She failed in the second though…

Nearly all my mum's carers were here on a visa - and they can no longer bring dependents with them, so not sure why it would be an issue now, as I think that was a concern for people.
I am massively in favour of increasing all carers' pay - they get round it by calling it 'social' care, which to my mind is making tea, washing, etc - when mainly they're delivering/administering meds, checking and dealing with pressure sores, assisting with mobility, dealing with extremely poorly or even extremely aggressive clients etc etc. The hours, split type shifts in the community and actual appalling ,pay as you don't get paid for travel between homes, is unattractive to nearly everyone. They deserve respect, better conditions and better pay.
Direct council carers do I believe have slightly better conditions in that they might work 7am to 1pm and get paid for the full 6 hours but agency will only get pay for the times in a client's house.
Councils sub contract to agencies but without cutting corners agencies can't make enough income to run effectively- yes they should have integrity and are checked, but managing it properly is barely possible.
The council were forever telling me that my mum could have 15 minutes calls not 30, or one carer not 2, to try save cash on her contract - lot of arguing to maintain her safety and well-being. She paid btw - over £2k /month for 4 daily calls. The agency she last had were fantastic right through to the difficult end - the council had though just changed the set up and this agency lost out to be one of the council's companies as some big company from elsewhere was cheaper- I'm glad my Mum was never changed to a less caring model really.
Our council's recent proposals, alongside scrapping good local agencies (to save money) were dire and I've written to MPs and the council to no response - but I imagine it's worse for carers and clients now - so sad.
Anyway, I can't imagine we will ever fill carer roles without immigration- even with pay rises it would have to be huge to attract people and then councils won't be able to pay - so what will happen? Less care available? I guess they will remain a shortage occupation in reality though.

Bonus cat tax as apparently it’s 4 years today since I got this lunatic. Happy gotcha day Perdita!

I am supportive in particular of greater restrictions on student visas. Alongside quite bluntly closing down some of the poorer quality so-called universities and increasing the job opportunities for 18 year olds living in the UK. The expansion supported by Tony Blair and indeed back to the 80s when polytechnics were renamed I think was a mistake.

Language changes should work both ways. Expats in Spain should learn Spanish, for example.

Re health care visa closure. I currently work in quite a niche role within the care industry.

Those on carers visas often have very basic qualifications (minimum needed), and are some times treated as making up the numbers initially.

There can be problems with the evisa system- different government departments not talking to each other, for example when a sponsor goes out of business, but the visa states they can work x hours for another company alongside the sponsor company. The candidate does x hours for several employers as the evisa checking system appears to give the green light. It is not updated by companies house, the original sponsor or the evisa checking portal.

For a long time the care industry has been treated with contempt, seen as a place to put the unskilled to work. There is a reason that my relative will never enter the care system, and this is why.

I'd like to see the planned changes, but I can't see it being a bad thing.

I'm heading to Italy for a week soon. I've learnt a few key phrases to get started- please, thank you, sorry, I would like, have a good day. Nothing major but enough to be a starting point. Thankfully, we have Google translate nowadays. I am going with the thought that I need to communicate in their language, more than they do in mine. If they don't speak English, it's my problem to resolve, not theirs. This is just good manners surely?

He wouldn't sit on the scales and ran under the table. He jumped on the vet's computer. He leapt on top of the cupboard and had to be fetched down. He wouldn't sit still to be examined. This vet had never seen him before and said "Oh he might be frightened". I had to admit that it was his normal behaviour. 🙄

When Tolkien was seen by the same vet the other day he said "Well he's much better behaved than the other one" so I think my parenting reputation is partially restored. 😁