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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is bullshit and want everyone to know?

120 replies

Fuckbrexit · 02/02/2020 19:18

I'm a mature NHS student, I needed to pick up some part time work so decided on community care to earn a bit of cash and develop my care skills and manual handling etc. I've worked in the sector before but office based so had some awareness of the job but I'm bloody shocked!

I've been expected to start at 6am minimum, drive miles to pick up double up non driving carer to then double back to drive 15 miles (going past my house) to first call (unpaid travel). Then work all day without a break, literally not even 10 minutes between calls and driving, no travel time at all. I get home close to midnight then have to get up at 5am to start again. All I can eat and drink all day is what I can grab from the back seat and put in my mouth while driving. So near 18 hour days and 200 miles a day driving (for which I get paid for 12 hours max) and 6 hours between shifts.

I only do this at weekends but full time carers do it 5/6 days a week and think it's normal!

How can this be safe for the carers? How can clients be getting decent care when calls are cut short to allow for travel? Am I being naive here or do people in general not know how bloody awful it is?

I don't even know why I'm posting really, I just can't see why this isn't a national scandal!

OP posts:
INeedNewShoes · 02/02/2020 21:01

The worst thing is when the non driver has single calls on their rota, I think I may get a 30 min break but am then informed that I must drive them to their calls (that I don't get paid for) and if I don't go in and help we will finish even later

This is just SO wrong. I’m pretty much speechless but definitely fuming on your behalf.

Original poster
Fuckbrexit · 02/02/2020 21:09

@INeedNewShoes thank you! I think it's outrageous too but it's so accepted that I was starting to feel like a big baby for being annoyed

OP posts:
Troels · 02/02/2020 21:09

It is scandalous, expecting you to drive others for nothing, no breaks, short calls, all of it.
One carer who has started at the place I work, doesn't drive. She was promised only work in her area so she could walk or catch the bus form one end of town to the other.
They gave her calls that were 15 miles away, on weekends, no bus service. They told her get a bus, she said there is non and in the week the bus took over and hour, going through all the villages, the call was short and she wasn't paid the hour there and hour back on a bus. They said get a taxi then, that cost more than her wages for the call.
Its shameful.
Get on the bank at the hospital, it's great for extra work and getting experience.

Fairenuff · 02/02/2020 21:11

You don't have to drive the non driver, you are choosing to.

This is all your own making.

ChiaraRimini · 02/02/2020 21:12

It's shit OP. If you need work you'd be far better off working as an HCA in the NHS IMO.

Original poster
Fuckbrexit · 02/02/2020 21:17

@Fairenuff we literally have to as a condition of the job but I agree it's shit! That's why I found another job, £2 an hour less but eight hour shifts without the piss taking

OP posts:
BlueMoon1103 · 02/02/2020 21:18

I work for a care company and it is NOT like that. I really feel for you and any carers who have to work like that Blush how awful!

Fairenuff · 02/02/2020 21:19

IIf it's a condition of the job, who does the non driver have to pick up?

Original poster
Fuckbrexit · 02/02/2020 21:20

I'm looking for bank HCA work with the NHS but I'm struggling because my placement hospital is a 90 minute drive away and we do 10 hour days there (and can't claim travel expenses on the bursary) so it's hard to fit shifts in there without huge extra travel expenses. It's bloody tough just training at the moment!

OP posts:
seltaeb · 02/02/2020 21:22

The only way this will change is if people (women) refuse to do it.

JellyfishandShells · 02/02/2020 21:22

A lovely neighbour - just the sort of person you would want looking after you or your loved ones - works as an carer and has told me awful stories about agency control centres in another part of the country insisting that ‘ it’s only 2 miles, I can see it in the map, won’t take you a moment to get there ‘ about fitting in another call across the other side of a London borough in the middle of the rush hour. Or doing private, directly paid work and having all kinds of problems actually getting paid on time or for the right money or being expected to buy shopping for the client from her own meagre resources and claim back rather than the money being provided up front.

Echobelly · 02/02/2020 21:26

YANBU at all - I have heard about the lack of time/pay for travel and it's just shocking. No one can be getting quality care with carers stretched so thin, and the carers have a right to a quality of life!

BobLobLawLLB · 02/02/2020 21:27

In my last job as a domiciliary, the company made not only do my round,but drive another carer around to do her round also. This was because she was an alcoholic and the company thought she would be safer with me keeping an eye on her. She would swig black coffee (laced with vodka) inbetween clients.

SoldiersinPetticoats · 02/02/2020 21:29

OP if you company is not paying you 45p per mile for travel, you can claim the difference back from HMRC. I’ll try find the info for you.

Original poster
Fuckbrexit · 02/02/2020 21:29

@BobLobLawLLB Shock what the fuck?! How is this ok for anyone least of all the poor bloody clients?! And you obviously!

OP posts:
AutumnRose1 · 02/02/2020 21:30

It is appalling

Is there a union though?

SoldiersinPetticoats · 02/02/2020 21:32

www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/vehicles-you-use-for-work

Original poster
Fuckbrexit · 02/02/2020 21:33

@SoldiersinPetticoats thank you!

OP posts:
Fatasfooook · 02/02/2020 21:38

This is the type of thread the snooping journos should pick up on. Make it a newspaper scandal. This needs to change

SonjaMorgan · 02/02/2020 21:39

I didn't work in the community but in a residential setting and we were expected to work for 12.5 hours a day with 3 10min breaks. The work was exhausting and I was repeatedly assaulted by residents all for a little over minimum wage.

I left after one day a resident punched me and spat in my face and I considered punching him back. I have the up most respect for anyone who can work under such conditions and stress for the little pay on offer.

Original poster
Fuckbrexit · 02/02/2020 21:46

@SonjaMorgan that's terrible! I hope you found something less stressful

OP posts:
SoldiersinPetticoats · 02/02/2020 21:46

Good grief, that’s illegal to make people work those hours.

jessycake · 02/02/2020 21:52

Councils go for the cheapest care companies , I feel so sorry for people with no advocates that depend on some of these companies and I must say because of the poor working conditions they don't always have the best carers My Dad went through three of them, one was shocking .

AnotherMonthAnotherName · 02/02/2020 21:52

*Look for an nhs job, nurse bank is a good option for students.

Surely only a qualified nurse can do bank shifts as a nurse?

Do you mean HCA?*

Nurse bank refers to all nursing staff- band 2+. It's what they call the temporary staffing gig in most places.

AnotherMonthAnotherName · 02/02/2020 21:54

In my area, to be a community carer you must be a car driver, this is not negotiable. But care work is especially shitty all around the country, and I think home caring is the worst of the lot. At least in care homes and hospitals you can go home on time (mostly) and get breaks (mostly).