To think this is bullshit and want everyone to know?

[Fuckbrexit]

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!

I had a similar experience when I used to do this, thankfully a long time ago now.

My company would give you the next weeks rota at 5 on a Friday and then go home!

For the people saying OP shouldn’t have to pick up the non driver you are absolutely right but it really is how it is in this sector for a lot of companies.

I did a year working for a local home care company. Lured me in with promises of 16 hours, and good pay.

I put 24k miles on my car in that year. I would be out of the house in blocks, from 7am to 10am, 12pm to 2pm, 5pm to 10pm. I literally had no life, because if you weren't at work, they were on the phone hassling you to cover. We weren't ever allocated travel time so you had to cut that time off visits, often 2 carer jobs would be done alone as the other carer was running late. Most days we were all running late by 9am as the person doing the rotas didn't drive and had no idea of the local area. It was nothing to get 2 visits 15 miles apart through a city centre in rush hour with no travel time. And your 3rd visit would be right back where you were before. You'd get hassled non stop all day for being late by clients relatives.

It was honestly the most soul destroying job I've ever had. Every time I tried to resign I'd get talked out of it, and we had some amazing clients but it nearly broke me.

The Unions should be ashamed.

The unions and the Labour party, who should care about care workers, don't. Think about the 'unskilled' (it is anything but) work that men and women do. Men's is higher paid and more likely to be unionised. I'm a leftie but the left doesn't care about women.

I have worked as a carer on the community for years and in care homes. The hours are awful, I eventually trained to be a dental nurse and finally didn't have to work those awful hours, drive around late at night, going to look after people I didn't know, hadn't met before. It is not safe. I'm currently looking for a job, mat lav eis almost over and these are the only jobs going! Really don't want to have to do it again.

Thankfully all companies are not run that way.

The care system is awful but every attempt to put in on a proper footing is kiboshed because no-one actually wants to pay for it.

Boris Johnson is supposed to be coming up with a "plan" but much as I loathe the man if he fails it will probably be because of this inherent problem rather than his own incompetence.

I'd probably favour some form of social insurance scheme BUT that needs to be accompanied by an absolute commitment to investing in housing - it would be intolerable for another burden to be put on the working young while housing inequities continue.

Your Insurance will affected.

@lborgia Union exist to ensure their Workers and the rights of workers in general are represented. For some reason this ongoing problem which affects a rolling cohort of vulnerable people and poor women isn’t a priority for them

You're making it work for them. This adds to the problem.

So you're more angry with the unions, than the government/ companies whoever is responsible for treating the women so badly?

I agree that Unions need to support them when the workers find themselves in untenable situations, but surely we should hold the perpetrator to a higher standard than "they can do any shit, but the unions need to be held responsible for not changing their practice"?

So you're more angry with the unions, than the government/ companies whoever is responsible for treating the women so badly?

Who said more angry? They are all at fault.

OP I'm not convinced that picking up a non driver is a condition of your employment.

I think they asked and you agreed.

Otherwise, are you saying that if you had refused to drive the other person, they would not have offered you the position?

Also, earlier you stated this: 'I wouldn't mind so much if the other carer would get a cab to and from my home so my day isn't 40-60 mins longer than theirs for no extra cash but it's not the done thing.'

Again, this clearly shows that this is not part of your contact but is just something that you have agreed to do.

I think that if someone went for the job and the employer wanted to employ them, they would not turn them away for refusing to drive another colleague around.

I don't even see how they can put in a contract that you have to pick up someone in your own car in your own time. I think this is just something that you agreed to do, not a term of employment.

That shows a lack of understanding of how it works fair

Do it for a week and come back and see what we mean.

@Fairenuff refuse to pick up the non driver and probably find yourself with 0hrs the next week or the crap run nobody else wants
The time allocated isn't great, I use to get 30 mins (with 10 travel so really 20 mins) to say hi, chat, log book, meds, toilet/change pad, make food, wash dishes, draw curtains, apply creams, bye and lock up

But if you allow yourself to be treated like that, they will keep doing it. I'm sure they will need someone to cover the hours the non driver isn't doing because they can't get there.

What's the point in hiring a non driver for a community based job anyway?

Because no one else wants to do it.

If you refuse, the job won’t get done. Seriously.

So then you have neglected your duty of care.

@FairenuffI get what you're saying, I really do but it's not based on the reality of the situation. There is no bargaining power here, you do it or you don't get the work. Some people have no choice

No-one would be refusing to do the job. Just refusing to pick up a colleague in their own time. There's no way that would be part of their duty of care.

If that's the case OP, why did they offer a job to a non driver?

If people need a two person visit and the other person has no way of getting there other than you picking them up then yes it is.

And it is infuriating but you have two people telling you this is how it is.

It's only neglect if you agree to do it in the first place. If you say from the off that you're not available to collect colleagues from home before your shift and take them home after your shift then you are not being negligent.

And do you think this would be an acceptable reason for turning a job down and not being subject to benefit cuts?

You would not be turning down a job. It's the other person not being able to get themselves to work that's the problem.

You really don’t understand, faire

So, you are paid the same as the non driver?

They get a door to door pick up service, whilst you have to have the stress of driving all over, parking, then driving them home again?

They shouldn’t have the job, surely? What would you do if you couldn’t drive?