To expect the UK's 1 million unemployed to get a job as a Care Worker?

[SquireOfGreenway]

The number of people unemployed in the UK is just over 1 million - the lowest it's been since the early 1970s. However, we should still surely expect that figure to be even lower.

From next year, it may be much harder for care-providing organisations to recruit European migrants to fill their Care Worker vacancies.

Surely, it is reasonable to expect any UK resident who is unemployed, claiming job-seekers allowance and so far unable to get a job to be required to get a job as a Care Worker? If they don't then they should be sanctioned and lose their state benefits.

I am not just talking about Care Work. I am talking about all minimum-wage and minimum-wage plus jobs that we have been relying on European migrants to fill.

Why not? There will always be maybe a few 100,000s unemployed, as people move from one job to another, etc. But why should there be a million unemployed people if there is a shortage of workers in any industry that does not require any great level of pre-entry qualifications?

SquireofGreenway - well, I hope you are cared for by a totally unsuitable person in your infirmity, as you clearly deserve it. How about one of these unemployed people does your job, instead? I’m sure anyone could do that, too.

I'm single mum currently on UC, being badgered into getting a job by the same society that doesn't want to employ me. I'm finding it hard to even get work experience/voluntary (as in working in a care facility for free). They want 4 different references and I'm unable to provide that. Clean CRB, worked in schools and nurseries (been turned into housing), cared for my children the last 10 years. I am fit and healthy, friendly, organised, really want to help... they don't want me. I've applied to 4 this week already.

I am signed up to study Health Care in September so I'm guessing that will help. It is my chosen career because of what it is. I WANT to be a carer.

They are picky. And they should be.

Care work is underpaid for the difficulty of the job. I think if I was unemployed I'd rather remain unemployed than be paid minimum wage for difficult job. Employers need to compensate better if they want to reduce staff shortages.

If my agency sent me someone who couldn't think for themself, didn't have the skills and was forced to be there, I would be livid and showing them the door. The agency is short staffed and I'm on the 4th day of no support at a time I'm desperate for it but I can't cope with someone who needs micromanaging either.

I've worked in care and I've seen people who have been forced into it and the attitudes of some of these people is that they have been punished and forced into it and standards have fallen as a result.

Best way to recruit care workers is to pay better, give them proper contracts and educate kids in schools about careers in the care sector so they value the jobs much younger

Oh yeh, cos caring for people with complex needs is exactly in the same ballpark as litter picking, or scrubbing graffiti off walls.......

WTF?!

Have you not seen those programmes about abuse taking place in care homes? There is already a huge problem because of the mentality that care work is a job that can be done by anyone, so care homes are staffed with entirely unsuitable people and have huge staff turnovers. It's fucked up. Care work needs to be valued and places need to employ people with the skills actually suited to the job.

I thought that people already had to fill minimum application requirements and accept the first job they were offered?

I think sanctions already exist, if you are on jsa and refuse to attend or go for a job which the job centre ( Or whatever it's called these days) send you.
Therefore, I think it logical to assume that some at least of the unemployed are unsuitable as care workers.
This also assumes that there is a vacancy within suitable travelling distance.
Some care workers have to have their own transport for working in social hours or for home visits.
So let's see what happens

One of those ideas that sounds good in theory, but not so good in practice. We are not talking about something a cash register at a food supermarket.

Would you want a miserable person on minimum wage who resents having to wipe the bums of dementia patients looking after the health, care, and dignity of your loved one?

Just think about it....

Care worker is one career area that I think should only be staffed by fully trained, fully experienced, educated professionals who want to be there. We are, talking about elderly people who are vulnerable and someone's parents/grandparents, and are very vulnerable to abuse. It most definitely NOT a job for a person who could lash out and push, beat or abuse and bully someone because they resent being paid shit.

It’s already a devalued role and your idea would devalue it further. Anyone who has ever had a relative require care or required it themselves knows how important it is to have the right people for the job who are trained well and want to be there.

As the whole world is getting older, care work will become even more essential. They should make it a proper career with training and promotion prospects and a decent wage. Care givers will need to deal with more complex health issues and people living longer with conditions like dementia. They need to attract better candidates. Desperate low paid foreign workers or unmotivated unemployed people won't do.

Aposter .... ridiculous comment, factory work needs skills, can be dangerous, farming also needs skilled, responsible people, as does hospitality - do you want your coffee slung at you without courteous, polite service?

It is a sad fact of life that some people are unemployable, I genuinely don’t know what the answer is ... I work in the voluntary sector and quite frankly, despite endless training, coaching etc etc there are some people that will just never be suitable for paid work.

The unemployed are required to take work that is suitable for them.

My DS has SEN (he's 8 and in mainstream, it's mainly behaviour). We have a carer from an agency. About one in every 5 that tries to work with him, actually succeeds. I'm not subjecting him to any more unsuitable carers than necessary.

Why are jobs like these so undervalued? My Mum was in a care home and the staff were bloody excellent! Trained ,empathic and kind .I would no way have their patience ! People like you are always going to look down on the poor /unemployed ,but while they may not have a ton of money they have life skills in abundance !

All the care agencies here expect full flexibility including weekends, evenings and very early. This doesn't work for a lot of people with childcare.

YAB so U that it hurts.

Care work is often trotted out on these threads as if it's a piss easy job that anyone can do. Well it's not. I interviewed for care work when I was unemployed and I couldn't do it as I have no driving license.

Carers work incredibly hard and you really need to enjoy doing it. I wouldn't want my relatives being cared for by someone that doesn't want to, but is being forced to.

I actually think that benefits should be easier to get and not be dependant on whether you are married/living together. 1M unemployed is only those who are officially unemployed. I've been unemployed several times in my adult life but never officially since the process of being registers as such was so depressing - even though I was not eligible for benefits - it's like being unemployed is somehow criminal.

In terms of being kind to people - why don't people start with not stigmatizing benefit claiments such as myself in the past.
Let's take the stigma against unemployed and benefit claiments round the back, pop a bolt gun in it's head and stir its brains around to make sure it's dead - the kindest thing of all.

Although your suggestion wouldn’t work I do think there is something in the idea. There are lots of people out there who would make excellent Careers but who don’t/ can’t under the current system. I’d like to see a shift back the the way things were 100 years ago. Career paths you could take where you also got a room to sleep and 3 meals a day and a community to be a part of, a lifestyle not just a job. Not everyone wants a mortgage, a partner and 2.4 kids, not everyone is suited to the world we have created and expect everyone to function in. Humans are naturally inclined to thrive in small communities, this lifestyle would suit and provide security, purpose and an alternative to the modern world for many.

You could do with understanding a lot more about the care industry imo. YABU.

It's a very very personal service. It requires a skillset, not everyone can do it.

Please do not undervalue the role of a carer, in terms of how demanding a role it can be for shit money, and the impact it has on the receiver of care. It's a really really important role.

Btw, this government is wired wrong with this announcement.

What a ridiculously ignorant post!

So in other words you see 'care work' as unskilled work that anyone can do even those who don't want to be employed so would do the job begrudgingly.

A GOOD care worker has a valuable skill set! They care about the well being of others, they listen, they have patience, they show compassion, they have empathy I could go on!

There was only ever one carer at my mother’s very good dementia-only care home, who I didn’t take to, and who was clearly in the wrong job.

The others were all lovely.
I dread to think of more like her being forced into jobs they are unsuited to.

OP hadn’t been back, either goady or a journalist.

I do care work and i would absolutely hate to work with someone who didnt want to do the job. I couldnt stand it

Having seen many carers in my jobs a cleaner for the elderly some are truly crap and are only.doing it because it's the only work they can get.

Do you have elderly relatives? Do.you understand how important it is to have carers who actually care? Would you be willing to wipe arses if you found yourself unemployed?

You are being URVVVUR