That it's not fair that care workers' work can be cancelled just like that?

[Spareprincess]

Hello!

Long time lurker and have finally made an account as mumsnet keeps asking me to sign in!

Anyway, I am a resting actor and am currently temporarily working in the care sector. Really, it is an eye~opener and I'm surprised it is legal to treat carers like this.

Society and the clients' families totally look down on us and even some of the clients are rude (I accept some can't help this ~ eg clients with dementia etc. Unpaid periods of time driving to the next client (how is that ok?). Terrible conditions to work in as some clients' homes are filthy and some are smokers (which I try to get around by opening windows or by working days those clients don't have calls).

The worst thing (for me) though is that clients keep cancelling us last minute, or the agency can't be arsed to tell us until the last minute etc. 3 x times this week I've been cancelled a few hours' before a lady's visit, only to be told she has decided to go out for lunch. Do we get paid for the cancelled visit? Do we heck...

It is a zero hour contract tbf, but the agency do the rota for a month ahead so it feels like we are committed to them but not the other way round. We can't cancel the visit if we decide not to go and we commit so much to them.

The clients don't seem to realise we don't get paid for a cancelled call. Or do they just not care? I really don't know.

And when things go missing, the families immediately suspect us. The agency won't even stick up for us and give us the benefit of the doubt. They~ like the families ~ just come out and ask us if we took something. So rude. Sorry, I think I've had enough of it and I've only been there for 3 months.

Just fed up as I fancied a job where I could help people whilst I have time off from auditions, and was hoping I'd be able to do it on and off for the foreseeable.

It works both ways - care workers turning up late (with no explanation), spending half their time on their phone, announcing they were leaving earlier than booked on the pretext of a dental appointment at 3.30 pm (coincidentally when children come out of school)….

It’s awful for care workers, shitty pay but lots of training and responsibilities. I think supermarket work would at better

I tried care work for an agency. Not for long. I found I couldn't deal with giving intimate care but on top of that was that your day is timed so intensely. You have to log in on the app when you get to clients home, log out. Your travel time between clients is timed also. If one overturns then you're late to next one. I understand rota-creation is a nightmare task but there's absolutely no lee-way for working with slow-moving vulnerable people or recognising the value of a rambling reminiscence to well-being. Also whatsup groups; a rota one, a begging you to take a shift one, a social one, a COVID test info one, one for each client. So you have whatsup groups of 10 plus and frankly on my evenings off I did not want to know that Graham needed reminding about his meds or his daughter said could we change the sheets. At £10.50p/h I am not prepared to have a job dominate my thoughts like this. No way. As I said, I didn't last long.

I've just left community care work. It's a job I love but I can no longer afford to do the job. The cost of fuel eats away at my already crap wage.

Carers are so undervalued, we are definitely looked down on yet in a lot of situations we understand the service user more than most.

I have always gone above and beyond for every single person I've cared for.

A lot of notes have to be input on our phones too, I can assure you I certainly don't sit looking through my phone when I'm working. I'm not saying some don't but

I have absolutely no idea why my post has such big gaps I'm so sorry

Could you try hospital work on the staff bank?

Hello, if you're able to, have a look at working for your local NHS Home First, I do bank shifts for them as a district carer, they pay mileage on top of band 3 (with a % on top for unsociable hours), and I've found management at the two areas I work for to be caring and reasonable to staff. Great job, yes you get the odd people who are hostile or who live in unsuitable conditions, but they seem to be the minority.

Find another company. There are some terrible ones out there but some good ones too. The company I work for pay travel time and also for cancelled visits and a fair mileage rate. It’s a bloody hard job but so rewarding and if you find the right company to work for, I’m sure you will have a better experience. Care companies are crying out for good carers at the moment so go for some interviews and, now you know what to look out for, ask all these questions before you accept a job.

That’s sad to read.

I don’t think zero hour contracts shouod be legal, they’re exploitative.

Re thefts though, I’ve known three different carers to steal from
the person they were caring for, so while you’re honest many aren’t, just like hospital workers or shop workers or lawyers or anyone basically.

Working for the nhs as bank would be much better pay

YANBU. I had carers for my son who has ASD to go out on respite. The carers were great but the agency was apalling. Totally disorganised and unprofessional...I had carers turning up on the wrong day wrong time. Over an hour late not turning up at all. Not their fault as the agency's record keeing was abysmal... Sons Care plan always out of date and at one point had info for another child! Carers did not get paid for training. Allowance for lunch taken away A few years back. They did not take on enough staff to cover all the sessions then bullied those they had on their books to take on more and more.

Its what you get when care is run with making profit as A priority. My son is just A cash cow to them and to maximize their profits they extract as much as they can out of you and give you as little as possible in return. In the end I withdrew my sons package from that provider. It was causing too much stress. He has been without respite for six months while we wait for another to take him on.

YANBU Op. I was in a similar position last year, except I work from home running my own business choosing my own hours and after covid I just felt like I was becoming more and more reclusive, socially awkward / anxious etc and that a little PT job on the side, one day a week, would be good for me.

Found one very easily and was really excited to start and hopefully make a difference to someone's life.

They added me into their group chat on whatsapp the week before I was due to start and I am not joking you this thing DID NOT STOP BUZZING. In the space of a weekend I had well over 100 messages to catch up on - where are the keys? How is "Sarah" going to get the keys for Monday? Sarah saying she doesn't work Mondays, she said she'd cover once as a favour but not going forward. Laura can you cover Monday? Okay but not til 9.30am. Marta can you stay on til 9.30am? Yes but her parents have been in to visit and are complaining about mess, can someone go in tonight for a deep clean? Okay but how will I get the keys? Gemma has the keys but she's at her boyfriend's. Sarah as the only driver can u pick keys up and take them to Laura? I've had a drink she'll need to get a taxi."

ON AND ON AND ON.

Before I started my business I was working a professional job, dealing with multi-million pound products in an industry riddled with rules and regulations where every day felt like a mad scramble but that was nothing compared to how I felt in that group chat. And back then I was being paid £60k a year to keep on top of the occasional SHTF email or call outside of work hours. Not £10 an hour for one shift a week.

I couldn't get over the sheer audacity of them (the bosses) to think they could own so much of my time and attention for £10 an hour that I hadn't even earned yet.

I explained the job wasn't for me and noped TF out of there, feeling incredibly lucky that I didn't need the money and could do so easily.

The whole thing needs a massive overhaul ASAP. I genuinely don't know how people can stand it for any period of time.

It is awful and unfair and impacts massively on the quality of staff as most people who can do something else do!

It sounds reprehensible, what you say, and in other industries, you would be paid if the cancellation was within 24 hours of the job starting.

I think agencies should have a checklist which goes with their risk assessment to cover cigarette smoke, cleanliness, dogs jumping up at you, and you do an assessment on the first visit ( it it is a new client) and feed back to the agency. Some of the issues you state affect the health and welfare of the client too: e.g. hygiene.

You have flagged up a number of very important issues. I'd say write to your MP, pointing out the problems carers face. MP might be able to work towards better protocols.

Find another agency.

Try to work in a hospital setting. Protocols are more rigorous. For instance, In hospitals for adults receiving treatment for mental health crises, there are often cameras. Staff are less likely to be accused of theft.

It's so, so wrong OP. Those looking after society's most vulnerable tend to be the most shittily paid.
YANBU

Wow.
I'm a carer, and have been with the same company for 4 years - it's not a zero hours contract, though.
I recognise some, but not all, of your points.

Travel time should be paid. Great - in theory, but they seem to work it out 'as the crow flies' which, of course, doesn't apply when you have multiple town centre visits on market day, so are driving up and down the bypass to avoid traffic jams, because your rota allows 2 minutes between visits. That's not even long enough to lock the flat door, walk down the stairs to the main door of the building and then to where you parked the car, never mind drive to the next visit and park up and walk to the home!
Also, the first and last visits of the day are counted as commuting - so, I often find that my first and last visits are the furthest away ones, so my petrol costs double, but I don't get travel time or fuel allowance for it.

Cancellations - your service users will be being charged if they cancel within 24 (or 48) hours. This is so that carers don't end up short. However, in my experience, cancellations often disappear from the rota, either replaced with a visit from someone else's, or a gap. Managers and seniors have access to rotas, so will swap out a cancellation with one of their own visits, so they (or their friend) get to go home early, on full pay, while you twiddle your thumbs in a car park for no pay...

I'm off out in an hour, same again tomorrow. 2 of my regular clients are in hospital, and one died a few days ago. So, I have 4 hours of actual paid work. I receive a Universal Credit top up, so my earnings are reduced by 55%. Additionally, I pay the usual tax and NI. So, tomorrow's shift is worth £40 - 70%, so £12. Petrol will cost me £10. Most of that is commuting, so I'll be refunded about £1.50 of that (16p p/m). So, my child will be home alone and miserable. I'll be home too late to go out. I'll be wet. And likely late, as the local pharmacy is overwhelmed and I have a prescription to collect. I'm allowed 15 minutes, but it'll take at least double that, and I'll have to pay £1.50, to park, out of my £3.50 net pay.

I can't afford to buy a car, so lease one through the company. I pay £120 p/m towards it, plus around £180 in petrol. There's no Ofsted registered childcare available at 7.30 am on a Sunday,.so I pay casual babysitters, which isn't refunded under the 80% UC scheme. So, most months, I am around £100 better off than if I didn't work, at all. I do 120 hours.

Phones - we log in and out of visits on them, and to have write very detailed notes. Each task has to be ticked off. So, say I apply some cream, I have to unlock my phone, log in to the app, go to the correct visit, go to the task screen, select 'medications', select the cream, and tick off each body part I applied it to. I have to navigate the same cumbersome system for each sip of water, each mouthful of food, each change in the redness of a sore, the approximate wetness of an incontinence pad, the service users mood, etc etc etc. So, yes, it may look as if I'm 'on my phone for half the visit'.

Stealing. I think the problem is that companies are so short staffed, that they'll give just about anyone a go. Also, Jobcentre plus 'work coaches' believe that anyone can do the job. I've had new starters, sent by the Jobcentre, under threat of sanction, shadow me. They don't want to be there, and have no aptitude for the job. Carers are overwhelmingly likely to be poor, non academic, working class women with children, often lone parents, trying to fit work around kids, school runs, caring for their own parents, troubled relationships etc.etc. I've had to make a safeguarding report, before,.when it became clear that a cleaner was 'financially abusing' a client of mine. I'd previously passed her the info for Women's Aid.

What's the solution?
Better pay, better conditions, acknowledgement of just what the job entails.
But that won't happen, as long as the reality is that those with the fewest options are caring for the most vulnerable, 'least economically active' members of society.

So, why do I do it. Well, it's the only way I can afford a car, without which, my life would be unbearable.
But, mostly, it's because I love the actual work, the actual people. And I think I do a good job. And I think that most of my colleagues feel the same.

Blimey. I've just caught up on posts that were posted while I was writing my massive one!
So glad we don't have WhatsApp groups. I met a colleague (my new manager, actually) in a car park about a year ago, to hand over some PPE, but we were both wearing masks, so doubt I'd recognise her 'in the wild'.
I do get texts, sometimes, from a very young colleague, who is having an anxiety attack at 6 am, at the prospect of her shift, and I 'talk her down' as best I can. We've never actually met, though

thank you for sharing this. it does sound awful and it's part of the social care crisis that is leading to the awful problems that hospitals are having, because so many hospital beds are being occupied by people who could go home with an adequate care package but an adequate care package can't be put in place because the care industry simply cannot recruit enough people to take this awful onslaught at such derisory wages.

I believe there was some legislation passed such that your wages across the day including travel time between clients isn't supposed to fall below minimum wage, but I think I remember reading that there are loopholes and if the structure is that the "employer" for each visit is the individual care recipient then there is no employer for the gaps. it's certainly exploitative.

I agree with pp that writing to your mp
to tell them what it's like would be good. we will not have a functional NHS at all if we can't make the care sector function better.

If it's any consolation, I think that you are doing a very valuable job in highlighting these issues. I would be incensed if somebody asked me to my face, whether I had taken something.

I think you should think about keeping records, in case you have the opportunity of writing an article ( with not actual names, obviously) to try to publicise what goes on.

Pay peanuts and what do you get …

It is one of those jobs where I think zero hours contracts should be banned, and it be accepted that the costs charged to those needing care will be more once people are on secure employment.

It’s a bloody hard job. I work for a care agency (office staff) and we have better conditions than you describe (pay full shift pay, all mileage paid, etc) and still struggle to get carers.

The problem is that people either can’t pay high amounts for their care or can’t afford it, in which case the Local Authority pays us at their own (low) fixed rates. So 30 mins of care costs the client/LA around £25-28, and the cares gets paid around £10-11ph. Which makes it sound like we’re making a massive profit but actually after CQC fees, insurance, NI, Pensions, office costs, salaries for office staff, accountancy fees, training etc etc we’re actually just breaking even.

So until the cost of care rises, the amount we pay carers has to stay low. Which causes resentment, and then they leave…

Can you get some acting-adjacent work like teaching drama instead?

Why do you do it? It's the only way you can afford a car? That makes no sense. You could literally do almost any other job by the sounds of it and earn more 🤔delivering for domino's would pay more for example as a similar role with less responsibility.

You would be much better working as a carer within an Extra Care Scheme where there is no travelling between clients.