Carers should be paid more money

[Vivana]

For what we do and what we have to deal with specially covid. Minimum wage is all I am on and have to run about for 12 hours with hardly no break.
I love the job and I'm lucky to have one but when dealing with residents who have covid it's so much more work and putting our health at risk. Wearing ppe all day is a nightmare including face visors. We also have to come on our days off for weekly covid testing as it's cumpolsary and now have to learn lateral Flow testing to residents can see there family's.
We should be paid much more than minimum wage. I probably am being unreasonable but I don't feel I am. The job is very rewarding but can be very sad and stressful to.

janetmendoza

Exactly and even when dealing with someone dying and doing everything you can to help them pass comfortable is very heartbreaking but it's part of the job and I cannot see just anyone doing that.

I think they have to pay you to for the Covid testing - it’s compulsory and the time would take you below minimum wage if they don’t

I pay £23 for a 45 minute visit so why on earth are you only getting minimum wage?

Carers should be paid more (and I urge those in private care to try and find nhs work as it is, more often than not, much better paid with better terms and conditions).

Unfortunately the fact that anyone can get work in a care home with no experience and only minimal training when you start (like I did) just lowers the value. The bare basics of care, feeding, personal cares etc is unskilled. If you can do it for yourself you can do it for others... doesn't mean you'll actually be good at it in terms of the mental strain but companies know that the basics can be done by anyone and exploit that. Its sad, I've heard people describe care work as bottom of the barrel work, I've seen people on here tell people to look for care work when they're desperate. Its not right at all.

@HermioneWeasley

I think they have to pay you to for the Covid testing - it’s compulsory and the time would take you below minimum wage if they don’t

Local government infection control grants provide money for companies to pay carers to attend work for testing / vaccinations during COVID.

@janetmendoza

The thing is caring is quite skilled but society pretends that it isn't in order to pay these guys less. Many many people could not change a catheter bag, use a hoist, be able to change a range of hearing aid batteries, communicate in Makaton, mix a thickened drink, puree food according to the stages, report safeguarding concerns or help someone into a standing frame. Plus a million other thing carers can be expected to do. There is no will to acnowledge the skill set and pay more. But yes of course you are underpaid.

Other than communicate in Makaton I'd say all those skills are very easily taught on the job, I learnt to do them with no additional specialist training.

The real skills in car work, that make a good carer are not the practical tasks you do. Its having the patience, mental stamina, kindness etc that makes you able to cope with the pressure and responsibility that comes with caring for the most vulnerable.

This thread demonstrates why - people don’t understand how care works in the UK!

Care services usually fall into social work (ie local gov) rather than NHS. Care companies are commissioned on a tender basis and, in a lot of areas, the commissioning council determine the rate paid. As PPs have said, it is not a profitable sector.

Why not do it directly? One local authority a few years ago found it cost £18 per hour to deliver care via an external provider, whereas the in-house service cost £36 - twice as much. The reason being better employment Ts & Cs (6 month’s full sick pay, 6 months 50%, more generous holiday entitlement, enhanced rates for shift/unsociable hours). Hence increasing reliance on external providers - pure cost cutting which devalues the role.

@DingDongDenny summarises it well. Generally, people who work in care do it because they have a genuine calling to do it, and can afford to do it. (Many barely!) I know many ex carers unhappily stacking shelves or in call centres because they just could not meet their commitments on minimum wage zero hour contracts. It’s shameful- a properly funded care system would deliver a much better service and would mean significant savings for in terms of efficiency as well as relieve pressure on the NHS.

Some of the posts on here are ignorant and disrespectful.

Carers are undervalued and underpaid especially in carehomes and the community. If a client pays £20 ph half of that will go to the agency. With your skills and experience maybe the NHS would work, have you looked at nurse associate training or CHAPS training in carehomes.

The thing is, there's a pricing issue where demand for care services is very price elastic. This means if the price rises too much, the demand falls. People simply cannot afford the care, so family tend fo provide it themselves, and councils tend to simply reduce the amount of hours they will fund, reduce eligibility (eg who they will fund care for). Its the ability and willingness of family/friends to provide care when prices rise too much, that contributes to wages in the sector staying as low as possible.

Yes its demanding, there are skills involved but many people possess them or have the basic ability to be trained in this area, so care workers are easily replaceable.

I often think carework is like nurseries. Its inefficient having it provided by corporate chains - the extra costs of facilities, management, profit to an investor etc push up the cost the consumer and squeeze careworker wages.

It would be cheaper to provider high quality care if care workers could operate like childminders - as sole practitioners with far less overheads but regulated and qualified.

The only way you can get more money is to increase your leverage, and the most effective way you can do this as a low skilled worker is to unionise.

Will be tough to outsource care work to China.

Nobody ever got more money by deserving it more. Only by negotiating, and you can't do that alone.

Both informal (family and friends) carers and formal carers (domiciliary carers and those who work in care homes etc.) should be paid better money.

Decent video and report on this from Women's Budget Group - Creating a Caring Economy - a call to action :

wbg.org.uk/commission/

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland I was going to compare care work to childcare. Childcarers are often underpaid for the level of responsibility they hold just as care workers are. Government have very little concern for both early years and social care and yet everyone (The vast majority anyway) will need both Sectors during their lives.both are vastly underfunded and society doesn’t hold either career in high esteem.
Yes, carers should be paid far more than they are, but unfortunately, for those families who are paying for private Care home fees, it does feel that we are paying A massive amount (I’m unsure how much gm is paying now, last time I heard it was around £1200 a week) but when you break it down, you can see it doesn’t go far For full time dementia care. (I’ve just calculated it’s probably about £7 per hour, for an ensuite room, food, carers, laundry, Activities), so actually you can see why staff aren’t paid more than the company can get away with.

the government go on about how they support you, but actually there is Very likely no more money Forthcoming from the treasury to actually financially reward you for the good work you do.

Minimum wage to employee is £8.72. Add employers NI (13.8% or £1.20), holiday pay (28 days out of 260, 10.8%, £1.10) minimum employer pension contribution (3%, 0.30).
Cost to employer, who only provide statutory sick pay and statutory maternity pay and miniumum holidays is, £11.32. Legally this includes travel time, so would cover a 45 min visit.

unfortunately, for those families who are paying for private Care home fees, it does feel that we are paying A massive amount (I’m unsure how much gm is paying now, last time I heard it was around £1200 a week)

It's sometimes difficult to know when people are paying for care homes v. nursing homes (I'd expect the latter to cost a lot more). For nursing homes, for full 24hr coverage, I can see why it runs approx. £1200 per week (varying with location) for those who are self-funding with high needs.

Care home fees across the UK are something of a postcode lottery. For example, the average cost of a residential care home in 2018-19 ranged from £539 a week in Northern Ireland to £769 in Scotland. That’s a difference of £230 a week, or almost £12,000 a year.

And it’s not just a question of which country you live in – there are big differences from region to region. On average, residential care in a nursing home in the South East of England costs 42% more than a nursing home in the North East.
…
Self-funders and local authorities pay different rates. The figures above are averages based on the amounts paid by local authorities and self-funders. But because self-funders typically pay more for a care home than a local authority will – over 30% more on average in 2018-19 – fees for self-funders will often be higher than these averages.

www.which.co.uk/later-life-care/financing-care/care-home-finance/care-home-fees-akdbv8k3kwln

@ButtWormHole

I pay £23 for a 45 minute visit so why on earth are you only getting minimum wage?

Same reason that people might pay hundreds for a meal yet the waiting staff are on NMW.

I'm not sure there is a big pool of care workers available as all the care homes around here are constantly looking for staff. It's hard work and stressful when always short-staffed.

@ButtWormHole
I pay £23 for a 45 minute visit so why on earth are you only getting minimum wage?

Take off tax ( they will pay between 12.5% and 19% so thats a big chunk off straight away), wages management cost, office rent and bills, phone cost , staff training and the cost of course , pension ,nat insurance also any void hours ( contracted staff but clients cancel, in hospital or die they don't pay but care companies still have wages to pay.) PPE to provide and they have to pay staff for 4weeks minimum holiday a year as well as fund bank holidays .
like most companies they do have to make a profit .

Your £23 will soon disappear .

@saveforthat

Private care makes big profits just not passed on to staff

^this!

Used to be a care manager in a posh private one. Couldn’t stomach the greedy owners at the cost of quality of service.
U.K. really needs both a health and social care overhaul. Third world countries are better than us 😔

I agree OP, I work self employed in care (part time) but have just had my hours cut so today I have been looking for more work, loads of care jobs advertised, most asking for long unsociable hours and only paying minimum wage. Being a carer is a huge responsibility especially if doing house calls and having to make decisions, giving personal care and emotional support to clients made even harder by covid. I don’t want to work for £8 ph and have that responsibility.

YANBU. I'm a secondary teacher and the only reason I'm staying is because I could only move onto care or supermarket work, both of which are similarly risky with worse pay and conditions. I would walk in your position.

There is a service in my area where your self employed and can be a micro provider where you run your own service and set your own rate of pay. Thats my goal.
But for now I'll carry on what I'm doing and just know I'm helping the most vulnerable in our society and I enjoy what I do.
I do get premiums but it's not much. Eg time and half today and new years day and lucky I'm I'm on the rota for those days. I'll get taxed more tho. Can't ever win tho.

Good luck to everyone looking for jobs at present

I don't get paid for coming to have my covid test as they say its mandatory for all care home staff to have it done. So if I'm not there by a certain time on a Tuesday even if my day off I'm in trouble. It doesn't matter if I have personal things on that time that has to. Come first.
I am not having the vaccine till its more local to me and not traveling 65 miles to have it done. We are not allowed to car share but they don't mind if we get the bus
That makes no sense and if the residents are having it at the care home so why cannot staff have it to instead of traveling miles to get it.
But I refuse to fork out money for traveling costs for a 3 hour bus ride there and 3 hours back. They won't pay for travel anyway. Plus this expected to be done on a day off to.