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.

I earn £9.30 an hour, I am in charge of my residential service in absence of management. I supervise up to 6 support workers supporting people with complex needs - profound and multiple learning disabilities, aggressive behaviour and self harm, physical health problems such as being blind or epilepsy. I can catheterise, PEG feed, give medication, communicate with people who are entirely non verbal. I manage emergencies. I do 15 hour days, I am always running around, I am frequently assaulted. I love my job and my residents but most people couldn't do what I do

I think we need to recognise and value care workers and identify it as a profession in terms of national training requirements, structure etc. However monetary reward is unlikely to come as a result - or the whole health and social care pay structure would need to change.

I do agree with the pp re 'skilled' & 'unskilled' (although I hate these terms!) In that on the whole care workers don't know the theory or evidence behind what they are doing, they are most often working from instruction. There is a ceiling in care work as to what you can do autonomously, decision making, risk management and assessment etc. Although I do feel that senior care workers do have alot of responsibility (I work very closely with care homes through NHS projects).

It sounds like you are one of the good ones who clearly has reached this ceiling - spin this round and take it that your ready for new prospects and opportunities, ready to take the next step and develop further.

@blodynmelyn wow! I earn (a little) more than you and have a responsible job but nothing like that responsibility

For a brief spell I let my registration lasts and worked for an agency as an HCA mainly in care homes. The things I saw going on were awful many still haunt me today over 13 years later. The vast majority were run on incredibly tight budget (regardless of what the resident was paying) and most of the care was sub standard sometimes cruel. You would not treat an animal the way that some of these people were treated. Most of the carers were well meaning although had little or no training, they had learnt on the job and so copied the bad practices taught to them. The ethos in nearly all was set up to enable the staff to do the bare minimum, partly because they were short staffed in terms of the resident to staff ratio and that was the only way they could get through the day and also because they were quite simply lazy. Most organised whole thing around what worked well for them. I saw caring staff but never saw any individualised care in the 18 months I did it. It was an eye opener.
I do think carers should be paid more trained better and the whole thing need much closer monitoring and in depth inspection. Over the years Ive know trained colleges go and work in nursing homes and its seen as a dead end job, a few go in with ideas of changing the culture and quickly discover its an impossible task and retuned to the NHS (which the couldn't wait to leave).
I and a few other reported some of the things we saw going on to the CQC and nothing was done about it many of the most offending homes were rated. as "outstanding". Relatives are reluctant to complain because they fear that staff will then victimise their their family member in the home (that alone speaks volumes).
Being a good carer is a skilled job which requires extensive training in the beginning not a see one, do one, teach one ethos and CPD and of course they should be paid more.
I do acknowledge that many care homes are not making a huge profit because it is expensive to run a home even 1/2 properly, it appears money can only be made by either charging huge fees, the cheapest home where my MIL lives is £2000 a week if your self funding, or having multiple large homes, and few as possible staff to patients numbers, saving money on things like food, activities, standard furnishing (bedding etc) CPD and even quality of PPE. Until we as a society demand more and proper funding is available for our elderly relatives (and let's not forget that that will be us one day) then the mainly sub standard care that the vast majority experience will continue.

"For a brief spell I let my registration lasts"
lapse not last.

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.

I think this is key.

When people say "anyone could do it" I think what they mean is, there's no formally recognised qualification needed to get into the line of work, which means (rightly or wrongly), anyone can end up there (they may turn out not to be a good fit, but are then seen as "easily replaced" if they are not). And this does pragmatically link to the supply and demand argument - if you can select potential staff from a larger pool of people (ie those people don't need any specific entry qualifications), then in economic terms it lowers the value of that profession. If the NHS needed to recruit a specialist doctor or a psychologist - they'd have a much smaller pool of appropriately qualified applicants to choose from; hence that person is more highly paid because there is greater demand by virtue of them being from a smaller pool. I'm not saying that this is right - but economically it makes sense in helping us to understand why the caring jobs aren't more highly paid.

@blodynmelyn

I earn £9.30 an hour, I am in charge of my residential service in absence of management. I supervise up to 6 support workers supporting people with complex needs - profound and multiple learning disabilities, aggressive behaviour and self harm, physical health problems such as being blind or epilepsy. I can catheterise, PEG feed, give medication, communicate with people who are entirely non verbal. I manage emergencies. I do 15 hour days, I am always running around, I am frequently assaulted. I love my job and my residents but most people couldn't do what I do

I couldn't do what you do, and I adore carers for that reason. In my job I have worked closely in the past with care homes who have residents with the challenges you describe - each time I sat and spoke to a care worker dealing with aggression and challenging behaviour daily I told them I couldn't be on the "frontline" doing this. Perhaps it is time for a formal training route for carers to make it a more "skilled" and financially recognised profession...

*admire - not adore

Definitely agree OP

@blodynmelyn

I earn £9.30 an hour, I am in charge of my residential service in absence of management. I supervise up to 6 support workers supporting people with complex needs - profound and multiple learning disabilities, aggressive behaviour and self harm, physical health problems such as being blind or epilepsy. I can catheterise, PEG feed, give medication, communicate with people who are entirely non verbal. I manage emergencies. I do 15 hour days, I am always running around, I am frequently assaulted. I love my job and my residents but most people couldn't do what I do

Why are you doing 15 days? You need to apply for a HCA in the NHS. Still hard work but better money. Weekends and Sunday rate also night rate.

I work at a care home as a registered nurse and I truly believe the carers deserve more money and recognition for the job they do . 99% are hard working,caring people. Unfortunately CV has finally come into our home and many of us are now ill and we are only getting paid SSP which is sickening considering we have caught this virus from work and legally we are not allowed to work!! I am fortunate that for me personally the lack of income is not life changing ,but for many of the carers this is the difference between paying bills and having food on the table!! It is bloody shocking that these people are so disregarded. They do not qualify for any emergency funds because they are not claiming benefits...how ironic is that ?!

Luckly I get more than NMW, work nights as a Senior carer in a Dementia residential home.

No one can just become a carer you have got to be right for the job. It's a very hard demanding job and not everyone can do it.

Yes they can; anyone can do it because there are no skills or qualifications required to get the job.

It may take a certain type of person to be good at the job, but anyone can apply and get it. It being hard and demanding doesn’t lower the absolutely huge pool of people they have to pull from.

15 hour days are quite common, as are sleep ins. When I worked in the community we would do 10-10, sleep and then 7-10 with a sleep in payment for the 'sleep hours'

I have also reported bad practice to CQC. Residents made to stay in bed all day, lack of staff causing 1:1 not to be supported adequately, terrible M&H practice, and in the community, carers taking advantage of vulnerable people. Nothing ever gets done.

@emilyfrost

No one can just become a carer you have got to be right for the job. It's a very hard demanding job and not everyone can do it.

Yes they can; anyone can do it because there are no skills or qualifications required to get the job.

It may take a certain type of person to be good at the job, but anyone can apply and get it. It being hard and demanding doesn’t lower the absolutely huge pool of people they have to pull from.

Exactly. Bringing me back to my point re there being no formally recognised qualification or training required to apply and be accepted for the job. Maybe this is where it falls down? Both in terms of pay for workers and quality of care provided. Perhaps a more formal, standardised route into care would address some of this. Just thinking out loud ...

@TravellingSpoon

15 hour days are quite common, as are sleep ins. When I worked in the community we would do 10-10, sleep and then 7-10 with a sleep in payment for the 'sleep hours'

I have also reported bad practice to CQC. Residents made to stay in bed all day, lack of staff causing 1:1 not to be supported adequately, terrible M&H practice, and in the community, carers taking advantage of vulnerable people. Nothing ever gets done.

But for a sleep in you get paid extra don’t you?

You may not need qualifications to be a carer, but where I work new carers have to do a Care Certificate.

@AlwaysCheddar

Paying carers is bloody expensive - it’s a shame that those doing the actual caring only get a fraction of the cost. Think FIL pays about £25-30 an hour, and the carer won’t get half that. It’s unfair.

£22.50 ph on my firm. I get a shitty £9 from that. Don't even get any extra for Xmas days whereas nearly every other firm in my town pay time and a half. My monthly wage barely covers rent bills and diesel. In fact don't even get me started on the diesel one. 20p per mile does not cover the £80+ diesel I need to run my car each month

Mileage is a killer. I used to get 22p a mile or 34p if a Service User was in the car. Was putting so much in the tank as our area is large and rural.

Agree they are undervalued and underpaid. Agencies pocket most of the money clients pay for a carer. Best if you can advertise and work privately without going through an agency.

If carers want better pay, then why not organise themselves, join a union for a start?

@Ifailed

If carers want better pay, then why not organise themselves, join a union for a start?

Lots of us are. But if you are nit its good advice.

As I have said upthread, I work for a city council so get above average wages, certainly better than many other carers will get, and our union got us a living wage payrise.

I live alone and have carers coming in a few hours per week (mental and physical health) and they are worth their weight in gold. It saddens me that they are paid so little.

@TravellingSpoon, sounds like you should be encouraging your colleagues in the private sector to join your union to get a living wage pay rise.

Yes, it's disgusting how poorly paid carers are paid. It shows that the country as a, whole puts no value on the elderly, children, the vulnerable and disabled. It angers me when people claim it is low skilled and say "anybody can do it. It takes a skilled person with compassion, patience and many other qualities and attributes to care for any one of these groups.