To think that people look down at care work

[ManilaLuzon]

I get that it's something which doesn't require a Degree etc. Nor does it usually require experience.
However I've heard and seen people looking down their noses at it and thinking it's beneath them, even though it's a very important job looking after vulnerable and sick people who depend on you.

People see it as 'wiping bums'. In my support worker role I've never had to wipe anyone's bottom, I earn above minimum wage and depending on hours can earn 20-23k a year, though I'm aware this isn't the same for everyone.

I don't think some jobs are more important than others but I sometimes think people don't realise that the service users would likely die if they didn't have people supporting them.

I can understand why people see things this way but its still a shame, would be interested to hear from other care and support staff.

They do, you're right. And I've always felt angry that the most important roles in our society are so underpaid...carers, nursery staff, nurses...all terribly underpaid given the amount of trust we have to place on them.

It's terrible really....

It's true they are underpaid. Some of my colleagues have been seriously injured from service users yet return to work daily to work with the same service users.

I am lucky to be paid above minimum wage and do think it should be above minimum wage for all care/nursery etc. Staff

I was a TA a few years back and a friend told me "You're too intelligent to be a TA". It is another role that people overlook and think it's just colouring in and putting displays up.

I've always been slightly in awe of carers and support workers, as I think to be any good it takes a special kind of person, who is very generous and selfless.

Then when I had to get private carers in for my mum, and she subsequently went into full time residential care, my admiration only increased. They were kind, patient, professional, respectful and appreciated mum's sense of humour. They calmly managed situations that had me tearing my hair out.

The work they do is invaluable yet woefully underpaid.

I have nothing but admiration and respect for care workers. It’s such a difficult and demanding and thankless job and you have to be sharp and resilient. I think care workers, nurses, teachers, policemen, prison workers etc. are all underpaid, undervalued and overworked. Such important and valuable jobs that don’t get anywhere near the the pay and respect they deserve for the hours and graft they put in and for how valuable they are to our country.

Care work will never pay while it's predominantly seen as a female (bleurgh) vocation rather than as a seriously needed function in a humane society.

It sucks.

I admire all the carers I have come into contact with. They are compassionate and caring. Where would we be without them.

From a post on MN a couple of months back about what job you wouldn't want your children to do, MNers look down their noses at most occupations, but then again the average salary on here is £150k+ if you read some posts lol

I think you’re right. I think it was in the past but that’s changing now.
I also think they’ve introduced some qualifications into care work
I know my cousin was slaving over a computer for months in order to keep her job in care but that maybe just in wales.

You're not wrong. People see it as beneath them and that anyone can do. When to be a good carer, you need a whole host of skills that just can't be taught.

It is seriously undervalued, and as a result underpaid.

It's also seen as an extension of "women's work" and therefore should be provided free by wives, sisters, daughters and people begrudge paying for something they think people should just do.

@FunnyInjury

Care work will never pay while it's predominantly seen as a female (bleurgh) vocation rather than as a seriously needed function in a humane society.

It sucks.

Funnily enough my son started in care work last year and bloody loved it

I admire carers so much. As a nurse who's worked in the social care sector, paid and unpaid carers literally prop up the care system.

I think that firstly, a qualification in care should absolutely be required for care work - that would help it being considered as a true career path. I also think that a carers register would help in cementing the importance of carers, but there is a lot of push back on this idea from care companies and carers.

Care work will never pay while it's predominantly seen as a female (bleurgh) vocation rather than as a seriously needed function in a humane society.
This.
Same for childcare staff and teaching assistants.

I'm a carer in a residential care home and I'm proud of it, although I do only earn minimum wage and its such a tough job so I feel like we should earn more. Yes, I do a lot of personal care but there is so so much more than that and its by far the hardest work I've ever done and also pretty dangerous at the moment.

Unlike a lot of vocational jobs, it’s true to say that very few people actually choose care work in the active sense. It’s really even for most people who do it one of the last resort options they have available to them - hence why so many care workers are immigrants, have poor English, have few qualifications etc. Which I suppose doesn’t help its image, if the perception is that even the people who do it wouldn’t do it if they had better options. Unlike other equally low paid roles such as working in a nursery or being a teaching assistant, which people generally actually choose to do because they like small children or enjoy teaching, I don’t think most care workers see it as a long-term career path unless the plan is to up skill and qualify to manage a care home or care team etc

I think some people do. The same way some people look down on supermarket staff, cleaners, fast food workers etc. I don’t think any job should be looked down on.

I couldn’t be a carer. Not because I look down on it because I don’t have the skills. I’m not emotionally strong enough, patient enough. I have nothing but admiration for carers.

@ComtesseDeSpair

Unlike a lot of vocational jobs, it’s true to say that very few people actually choose care work in the active sense. It’s really even for most people who do it one of the last resort options they have available to them - hence why so many care workers are immigrants, have poor English, have few qualifications etc. Which I suppose doesn’t help its image, if the perception is that even the people who do it wouldn’t do it if they had better options. Unlike other equally low paid roles such as working in a nursery or being a teaching assistant, which people generally actually choose to do because they like small children or enjoy teaching, I don’t think most care workers see it as a long-term career path unless the plan is to up skill and qualify to manage a care home or care team etc

Yes, that is true a lot of the time although I have chosen this vocation and really enjoy it. I've had years in HR roles and wanted to try something completely different, something really rewarding and at the moment I'm doing it because I genuinely enjoy it not because its my only option.

It’s appalling the way people speaking about care work. I physically couldn’t do it. I find it hard enough with my own children and they’re my children. They attend a specialist school and all the TAs are relatively poorly paid given that they’re putting up with aggression, doing personal care, lifting and taking responsibility for children with high needs and often little danger awareness.

I wish carers, SEN staff etc were paid properly for their work, and I especially wish people would just stop talking about it as a job anyone can do. It absolutely should not be, because it requires specific skills and qualities that most do not have in order to do a good job.

@SinkGirl

It’s appalling the way people speaking about care work. I physically couldn’t do it. I find it hard enough with my own children and they’re my children. They attend a specialist school and all the TAs are relatively poorly paid given that they’re putting up with aggression, doing personal care, lifting and taking responsibility for children with high needs and often little danger awareness.

I wish carers, SEN staff etc were paid properly for their work, and I especially wish people would just stop talking about it as a job anyone can do. It absolutely should not be, because it requires specific skills and qualities that most do not have in order to do a good job.

Unfortunately what I've learnt is that people don't stay in the job for long. It's physically and mentally challenging and some private home keep to bare minimum staff. The work is extremely physical and mentally draining and you're constantly chasing your tail, so sometimes I come home and cry as I couldnt give the residents the true care and attention they deserve through no fault of my own.

I'm a HCA and by and large do feel appreciated and valued by the patients I work with. I think public opinion is somewhat changing due to the pandemic and people realise how much we as a society depend on those 'unskilled' workers. I work in paediatrics though and do find there is a lot more respect from families for that. However I also do bank shifts in elderly care, A&E etc and find there is far less respect from relatives in these areas. I also find some of the people I have worked with do not have the basic skills or compassion required to care for vulnerable people and it brings down the reputation of HCA's/carers as a when group. I think a qualification would be helpful, along with annual testing of skills and knowledge to ensure the right people stay in the job.

@GraduallyWatermelon

I admire carers so much. As a nurse who's worked in the social care sector, paid and unpaid carers literally prop up the care system.

I think that firstly, a qualification in care should absolutely be required for care work - that would help it being considered as a true career path. I also think that a carers register would help in cementing the importance of carers, but there is a lot of push back on this idea from care companies and carers.

We have this is scotland. Carers must be registered with the SSSC, and obtain a relevant qualification (usually a SVQ level 2) within five years of employment.

It's not a perfect system. The employer is supposed to report conduct issues to the SSSC. They carry out their own investigation and can strike you off the register. I know this is the case for teachers, GPs, ect also but I always found it to be abit much when you're earning minimum wage, have rubbish working conditions, ect.

It’s not a job I’d like to do because I appreciate it’s physically and emotionally demanding at times. I’m also squeamish and wouldn’t want to do personal care for people.

But I don’t look down on it, I think good carers really make a huge difference to the lives people they care for and they are increasingly valuable as the population ages. I agree they’re underpaid and undervalued because “anyone can do it”. Just because a job doesn’t need qualifications doesn’t mean anyone can do it though! Certainly not just anyone can do it well!

@tenbananasaday I think a system like that is needed. A family member I lived with for about 5 years had carers 3 times a day as they were completely dependent. Over the 5 years, we had many different carers where about 70% were lovely and amazing at their job. However, the other 30% were incompetent and uncaring. They didn't give my family member dignity, they wouldn't speak to them like a human and were very rude. We had to ring the care company on several occasions and ask that certain carers were not sent again as it wasn't fair on my family member.
It's obvious that care companies will employee anyone as they are desperately short staffed and basically anyone will do.
It's a very hard job to be dismissed from as the companies cannot afford to lose staff and complaints about care (or lack of) are almost always dismissed.

Having a register and a proper process will help filter out the incompetent workers and I think will also give the job some more credibility (not that it should need it. The genuine carers are like hero's in disguise)

I am in no way bashing carers here as I absolutely admire them, and they helped my family in more ways than just caring when we needed them. Some of them became friends after our family member passed, but others I am shocked are still in the job.

It's true but they are wrong. We should look up to carers. Not many people have the personality, wherewithal, people skills, strength (emotional and physical sometimes) to carry out this role. The trust we put in carers in not matches by their salaries. You have to be highly skilled in many areas, regardless of whether or not you have a degree.

Good carers are worth their weight in rubies, but from my DM's experience it seems to be one of the first areas the axe falls when councils want to cut back. As a qualified SRCN, she joined a care team looking after two profoundly disabled young women. She worked for several years P/T (given that she was nearly 70 at the beginning) and was originally on an NHS payscale (with drug handling responsibilities, etc) until the LA transferred the team and the trust it belonged to to a new entity, whereupon the staff were TUPEd out to NMW.

It's not the users or their families who lack respect for carers; it's the pressure to contain the cost of the service which, properly provided and resourced, are never going to be cheap to run. Look at elder residential care: anyone self-funding (DMIL is, so it's a live issue here) is subsidising the council-funded residents who costs are only funded up to about 30-50% of the care cost.

I don't think anyone looks down on people giving care, whether as home carers or working in care homes. Not if they're in their right mind. Yes to more money - and more time for those doing home visits. Yes to modular courses eg hydration, turning, using hoists, correct lifting etc - preferably paid for by the home or government. I'd be loathe to see carer degrees given few would be able to afford it - look at the nursing shortage and the loss of SENs.