To be furious with the way social care is(n't) run in this country?

[shallIswim]

I know I know I should have gotten angry about this before it affected me but... Mother has had severe stroke and is marooned in a community hospital in the back of beyond because there are no carers. None. Not in the community, not in nursing homes. The hospital is embarrassed. I'm quietly seething that a woman who has paid taxes all her life (forgive the cliche) has been left like this. There are no physios in the hospital so she is getting no rehab. I don't blame the hospital or any of the care agencies or companies. But I am raging with impotence.
Father is being cared for full time at home by a good private agency (we are paying) but even they cannot supply anyone.
The lady in the neighbouring bed to mother is way better than she is but has been waiting since early July for a care package to go home to.
What kind of place are we living in?
I do blame Brexit in part but don't want this to be a debate abut Brexit.
What can we do? It's AWFUL and inhumane

The social care system has been becoming increasingly broken over the last few decades.

Most dom care used by be provided directly by local authorities, so staff had contracts, annual leave, salaried positions, paid training etc etc.

It's now nearly all or possibly even all now provided by care agencies who can only win tenders by undercutting other providers.

Hence the piss poor pay, not being paid for travel time, having to pay for own training and travel, zero hours contracts etc etc.

Recruitment and retention has been a nightmare for years and is only becoming increasingly so.

It's horrendous and no, money won't insulate you from its effects if there aren't enough carers.

@Valorgreen

On top of the ridiculous amounts of income tax higher earners pay? Isn’t having almost half your salary taken away in tax enough?

Most people pay basic tax rates, many pay no tax at all as their incomes don’t meet the threshold.

Why punish middle and higher earners by expecting them to pay yet more tax on their hard earned incomes?

Everything about this post, but especially the last paragraph, shows exactly why we desperately need tough wealth redistribution policies to be put in place ASAP.

How well do you think that the NHS would run without most of the consultants and doctors? Bring in wealth redistribution policies and even more would leave for better paying countries abroad.

As a former social care assistant
Let me ask you this while ypu fester with rage is nmw worth being punched, kicked, bitten, hair pulled with absolute zero support from managers? Is being peed or shat on worth nmw? What about spat on and at risk of hep b or some other bbv?
What about patronising family members who make the jobs of carers 10 times harder?
You have no clue why there is a shortage, the bad outweighs the worthwhile and thats why there is a shortage of staff they are sick of 12 hour shifts where they are sore and never told a postive. 9 quid an hour to watch your life suck away from you to look aftet other peoples family, sacraficing time with their own families.

It is very hard work physically and emotionally and it is unsafe in terms or environment or abusive clients or and as well as abusive families. The post war generation are not as grateful or kind as the pre war generation and their are a lot of unreasonable people who place unreasonable demands on carers.

@DroopyClematis

As my mum can make a sandwich and can take herself to the loo , she doesn't qualify for care. She cannot shower or bathe herself but can stand, with a frame , in front of the sink and try to flannel herself. She can't wash her feet. She qualifies for financial assistance but not any care. She has to fund her own care which costs around £25 an hour and eats into her basic state pension as it costs more than her allowance.

The system is broken.

That's not right, I'd ask for a reassessment. She needs to be unable to do 2 of the care act eligibility criteria to qualify for support. And she doesn't need to be completely unable to do them- there's 3 aspects;

• can't do it
• takes longer than your average Joe
• causes significant pain

She needs to be unable to, or have significant difficulty with 2 or more of;

• managing nutrition
• personal hygiene
• toileting
• dressing
• using the home safely
• cleaning (maintaining a habitable environment)
• maintaining relationships
• accessing education or work
• using local facilities
• carrying out caring responsibilities

I imagine if your mum needs a perching stool to wash, that she can't dress herself without pain or without taking a while. I'd also bet she can't get out and about to the shops or do the hoovering.

Ask for a reassessment and make sure you know the criteria before hand.

www.scie.org.uk/care-act-2014/assessment-and-eligibility/eligibility/definition-outcomes#outcomes

It's because caring of any kind in the UK is considered to be so worthless that it is not worth paying people a reasonable wage.
Childcare, is the same.
YEs, pre brexit migrant workers were willing to do it. Why aren't allof those people who said foreigns workers were stealing their jobs jumping to become carers.

I'm a support worker and do like my role but sadly social care is underpaid and understaffed and staff are leaving. In my old role 2 managers left 6 carers and 2 care coordinators in 4 weeks.

The main problem is the underfunding by Social Services, tendering all care packages out to the cheapest company.
Many people may not be aware that each council who tenders out for care in the community, do not include their own in-house carers in these tenders.
Also, in rural areas carers would get paid the going rate for the level of care required, so in some cases the travelling time was factored into the prices paid by Social Services. If care was needed for someone who lived 20 minutes or more away from town centres, then they used to be paid for that time as well as part of the contract. Now that doesn’t happen, so carers and companies won’t take on care packages in rural areas as they are not viable.
Reputable companies pay travel time and mileage, but most cannot afford to do this anymore, due to the very low contract prices.

Care is such an undervalued and poorly paid job. The system is screwed - it’s all about making money (capitalism) and doesn’t give a crap about workers - mostly women (sexism). Stop voting Tory and maybe the system will change- councils need proper waged , in-house careers again. Before ‘care in the community’ and everything was privatised/outsourced things were better. Paying a carer £9 an hour is a fucking disgrace. They’d be better working in Mac Donald’s. Bojo and co don’t give a shit though they’ll have some posh live in carer when they get old. Meanwhile people stay in hospital (costing £2k per day to the NHS ) and get reconditioned and lose confidence.
Hope your mum gets out soon OP. We all need to write to our MPs and be fucking 😡

I know two care workers who left their job when covid vaccine was made mandatory.

*deconditioned not reconditioned

Your country is bankrupt, what do you expect? Especially in rural communities with high number of pensioners.

You can always pay for hospital transfer to bring her to your local area if there is better provision.

I know two care workers who left their job when covid vaccine was made mandatory. I know someone who done that too, she'd every shot required travelling around Asia and regularly snorts cocaine.

@Itsmeagainandagain are you talking to me? I think I'm articulating that I'm learning how grim it is in social care.
I've referenced poor wages etc and haven't once dissed people actually doing the job. Quite the opposite. I'm wringing my hands for everyone here. But mainly my mum.

And I can't pay for a transfer into my area. She's already in my county. And my county (at the far end of England - there's nothing g beyond us - has an acute shortage. She is stuck, abs she's not alone.

I wish I could do the job. I wish my mum would be happy for me to do the job. She's not abs I'm not.

Properly funded social care abs a value put on those who do the job is the only way out of this mess

The “tax more and they’ll leave” is generally complete bollocks - higher earners typically have more to lose when leaving. Round here it’s the NMW cleaners, baristas and carers who have gone back to Europe because once their job goes, or they’re not welcome, or there’s a bunch of paperwork in the way of them staying, why would you bother? Professional Europeans have just filled in the paperwork (or had it done by the employer) and stayed put because a) it’s harder to find a similar job at higher levels and b) they generally are supporting houses and families.

LA budgets have been screwed for decades. We need a serious council tax rise to pay for both education and social care, and politicians who have a bold vision to reform social care funding. If I could insure against care costs, I’d do it by any means possible.

Care work is only going to experience more shortages come November. This is the dead line for care staff to be double vaccinated or loose their jobs.
In an industry that is built on human rights, empowerment, honesty and choice I find this absolutely disgusting behaviour. Staff are being bullied and threatened.

@Bananarice

I know two care workers who left their job when covid vaccine was made mandatory.

There are stupid people in every profession

Meanwhile, Johnson, who promised ages ago to sort out social care, has failed to address it, and has "Got Brexit done" which has made the crisis much worse.

Can’t believe the people claiming Brexit is the problem.

Do you realise you’re effectively saying ‘well, we’ve run out of polish and Lithuanian and Romanian people to treat like shit, so what did you expect?’

Votes remain by the way but seriously

We paid £2100 per week for a carer at home but the money ran out so we now have to sell the home and my granny is in a care home.

I can’t understand why there are no physio or OTs in a community hospital - that’s a massive failing as rehab is exactly what community hospitals are for! I work in nhs hospital management and there’s such a big focus on patient flow with many initiatives to get patients home with the care they need - your county is failing you here!

Who would be a carer though? Minimum wage for back breaking work. Why do that when you can go work in a restaurant or something and get minimum wage plus tips. We shouldn’t be relying on foreign labour in order to get away with paying people less. We should pay people appropriately for the relevant cost of living in the country they live in.
I say this as someone that did do care work before going on to an nhs profession. Still underpaid for my level of education and qualifications.
But the answer in this country rather than pay people appropriately is to ship people in from poorer countries. Until we stop doing that then we will continue to have a problem. I see it happening in the nhs now. Can’t get the staff because working conditions are horrendous. Staff leaving. The ones that stay aren’t rewarded financially. Someone overpaid in an office somewhen goes off on a recruit trip to India instead.

The best suggestion I heard for funding social care was basically a death tax. Everyone over retirement age who died paid 1 or 2% tax on their estate regardless of whether they needed care or not. Apparently this raised all the money needed to completely upgrade the system. The shouts of "it's not fair" from the elderly were deafening though so it never went anywhere.

Who would be a carer though

People with no other options, or other options that are so shit that working 6am - 10pm for less than minimum wage is appealing.

People from Eastern Europe, a lot of the time. But they don’t matter because they are ummm … not British?

@m0therofdragons we pay similar for Dad's live in carer, and want to do the same for mum, but there's no one available. The money may run out but frankly we'll milk it til it does. Me and my sister have said stuff the inheritance! Which I realise is a lucky position to be in.

And yes - shocking lack of Physios, and literally no OTs. The Matron at the community hospital is embarrassed and angry in turn.

@Sparklestar1

Hi, I'm a manager in homecare - the problem at the moment is recruitment and retention. We have tried absolutely everything we possibly can, pay well above the usual minimum wage including paying 18-24 year olds the same as everybody else! People either don't want to work in care or don't want to work! On top of that carers are going off at the drop of a hat - now if they have been pinged they can still work providing a negative PCR test but some test results have taken 5-6 days to come back. It's a shambles. The work home carers have done during this pandemic has been forgotten - they too have been front lines just like NHS and care homes. We are currently struggling with the clients we already have due to staffing never mind being able to take more, it's heartbreaking and we are really at a loss as to what to try next

Are you joking? " We have tried absolutely everything we possibly can" "People either don't want to work in care or don't want to work!"

My mother has work in both care homes and homecare/community care for over 15 years. The pressure put on community carers by "managers" who sit in the office and make thier timetables is immense. 15 minute slots to wash, dress, serve meals, help with medications then 5 minutes to get to the next. Of course that is barring that on arrival extra care is needed or ambulance support. Some days the carers who come to clients homes are the only social interaction these people have and often ask them to stay for 5 minutes longer which carers are not allowed to do.
It's all well and good saying minimum 20 mins per call on paper but the realities are carers are not given that much time. Especially when they are expected to be on a double up call where two carers are need for lifting etc in which case if one is late that's two carers running behind. Also homecare companies rarely pay over time as the carers are blamed for running late.

The rates of pay are shocking "well above the usual minimum wage" is what? £11- £12 per hour. A pittance in comparison for what carers have to put with from head office/clients/client's families.

The privatization of care services is the problem. It's all about making money with no care or thought given to the staff or clients. See as many clients as possible in one shift seems to be the attitude.