To ask when care as a career will finally be valued?

[Cow90]

I recently applied for a role but declined it due to the conditions. First off they were offering around 15p an hour above minimum wage.
They could only guarantee me around 12 hours per week contracted, obviously I'd need a lot more than this. They asked for availability and wanted me to be available until 11pm 3 nights a week including every weekend.

I offered around 43 hours of availability to then be told that with that amount of availability, I'd 'struggle to gain full-time hours'.
Fortunately I declined the job offer. I was appalled, they honestly expect care assistants to be available 24/7, out for 16 hours a day. Sure you get a gap in the day and can go home if you live nearby, but they have you finishing at 11pm and back in for 7am.
8 hours in which to get home, get ready for bed, eat, sleep and then get ready again and leave.
It's appalling, how is this allowed? They're offering almost a zero hour contract but expect people to be available for about 70 hours a week.

I wonder if it's the same in other countries? It makes me angry how people are helping the elderly and vulnerable, doing physically and emotionally very challenging work yet compared to an industry like finance, paid peanuts. Why?

They also say when you interview oh you can choose your availability and we're flexible, then fail to mention you have to work 16 hour days every weekend.

The pay is low because the skills required aren't in short supply - most of us learn how to provide basic care to other humans by adulthood.

The working hours and conditions however - this should not be allowed. Companies should be not be allowed to ask staff to be available if not providing more hours. If they need you available for that time why can't they offer more shifts?

I do suspect this is a reason for the NIC change. Employers abuse it the current regime, it incentivises hiring lots of staff all on low hours because you don't pay employers NIC if the staff earn under 9,100. So all the care employers hire a lot of people on low hours, pay no employers NIC and most of their staff then need benefit top ups.

Yes, I believe that carers are massively undervalued by society but I also believe that this is changing. Covid emphasised the unfair terms and conditions of carers; zero hour contracts etc. It also hilighted the importance of carers and the impact they have on people's lives.
Change isn't going to happen overnight but the importance of appropriate training and a defined career path is on the horizon. Needs to happen ASAP

When it ceases to be viewed solely as "women's work".

Its important work and I would disagree, and say it is very skilled, is completely under-valued by society because women do it.
The care companies accept the contract for providing care and make money by both treating staff and clients appallingly.

When it's mainly men who do it.

The pay is low because the skills required aren't in short supply - most of us learn how to provide basic care to other humans by adulthood
This is incorrect and a shining example of the lack of understanding of the unique skills and attributes of carers. I work in healthcare and carers don't provide basic care. Their responsibilities include providing individualised care and support to clients; depending on their needs.

THANK YOU!

Could you apply for a part-time position, with regular shifts? Then you could pick up extra shifts if and when they come up. I completely agree that you need myriad skills to be a good care worker, plus physical fitness. The hours are often anti social too, but that's not reflected in the pay, which is usually minimum wage, or just above.

Ah, now here’s a story as old as labor itself those who do the most necessary work often receive the least in return. You see, my friend, value isn’t measured in effort, in sacrifice, or even in necessity. It’s measured in power. And the people who keep this world running those who tend to the frail, the sick, the forgotten rarely hold the kind of power that makes governments and corporations tremble.

Care work is a lifeline, yet it’s treated as an afterthought. Why? Because those in charge know that compassion is both a virtue and a shackle. They count on the fact that people like you care too much to walk away en masse. They exploit that sense of duty, stretching workers thin while tossing them crumbs, knowing that someone will always feel too responsible, too needed, to leave.

And yet, the financial world? It thrives on the opposite principle. It produces nothing but numbers on a screen, but it demands and receives compensation that reflects its own self-importance. Why? Because it holds leverage. Because it has the power to say no, to set the terms, to walk away if the price isn’t right.

So the real question isn’t why care work isn’t valued. The real question is: When will care workers stop waiting to be valued and start demanding it? Because let me tell you, the world doesn’t change out of fairness. It changes when enough people make it too inconvenient to stay the same.

It’s the way of jobs that are primarily done by women.

”Women do it? Ha! It must be easy and unimportant.”

If you look at other professions, you can clearly see salaries declining as women entered them. The reverse is also true. Prior to (male) hairdressers like Vidal Sasson, hairdressing wasn’t viewed as creative, artistic or skilled.

Caring is seen as women’s work. Therefore low value. It sucks!

This. When men do it, it will be better.

Not anyone can do it.
You have to complete lots of training. Health and safety. Manual handling. You have to make sure that medication is given for the correct times, doses. Multiply this by about 15 different people.

It is definitely a skilled job.

When society changes and we see it collectively as valuable, as in we value it being done well rather than just being done. And when we stop allowing it to be a profit based business.

Care done well is not unskilled, it requires a lot of 'soft' skills, and it requires a certain level of education and understanding of humans, conditions, behaviour and how to deal with it effectively and still get the care done.
Unfortunately because it's not valued it can and is done by people who don't have those skills, or even if they do, they're not given the resources to apply them effectively, so they don't happen.

That's why I left care, I have the skills and have trained to enhance them and my education, unfortunately I didn't have enough resources to be able to use them effectively in just about any care position I've had.

I get paid more, for the same level, in hospitality than I did in social care - that tells me that as a society, we value our leisure and enjoyment more than we do caring for the elderly, sick and vulnerable.

It may not be morally right, but the reasons care work is paid so poorly are obvious. Because it’s ‘unskilled’ work which requires no formal academic or technical qualifications, no structured training programs & no membership of an accredited professional body. Anyone can do it. There are no barriers to entry and there is no structured career ladder. Even being an Uber driver requires more qualifications, ie a driving licence.

These are the characteristics of minimum wage jobs in any industry, whether it’s retail, hospitality, distribution or care.

I think you’re wrong, many people cannot clean up copious amounts or urine, faeces, vomit and blood.

My training covered many many things. First aid, dementia care, fire safety, safeguarding (adult and child to allow for visitors), infection control, catheter care, stoma care, GDPR legislation, food safety and nutrition, adjusted diets, moving and handling, pressure sore care.

That’s just a few of the 45 odd courses that we had to repeat every 2 years.

Then of course I’m medication trained as well. I can dose people with controlled drugs and mark them accurately on the appropriate paperwork as well as store them properly. That’s a 6 monthly review.

I also did an NVQ level 4 on the job so to speak.

I’m not sure that any of it comes under ‘basic care’.

I worked for a good company with contracted hours, great holiday and a little above NMW. Most don’t.

The powers that be say that if they offer higher wages it will attract people in it for the money, rather than to provide care to the most vulnerable in our society. That’s bullshit, it’s an excuse. If it was true then why are we paying Foster Carers in excess of £400 a week?(I know because I am a registered foster carer) Surely they too, care for extremely vulnerable humans?

We are over 70000 carers short since Covid. I can’t possibly imagine why??

I know lots of male carers actually. But a lot of them are foreign and worry about their visas so won't complain about the conditions or wages.

Ed Davey needs to read this thread He was on This Morning recently with a woman whose mum was abused in a care home.
They had a debate about what could be done to stop this kind of abuse.

But the one thing that wasnt brought up is the one thing no Govenment will ever do including the Lib Dems if they ever got in.

And that is to stop care work being advertised through Job Centres or stop ppl being threatened with UC sanctions if they dont take a care position. Stopping Job Centres doing this will stop someone possibly taking their resentment out on the clients (not saying everyone forced by sanction would do this) just saying its a risk. Why is it ok for elderly people to be collateral damage to get unemployment figures down. They would never take the same risks with children by forcing them to be a child minder or be sanctioned.
I realise @Cow90 this is not what you were talking about but it all ties into the fact that the job is not valued as you have found out by their expectations of you.

The problem is that a lot of people actually can't provide care adequately. If we hired properly for it there would be a detailed assessment of personality traits, patience, social skills and motivation.

Most people with time can be taught practical skills for many jobs, however care primarily requires a certain personality and high morals to be carried out properly, which can't be taught or changed easily in the same way a practical skill or knowledge can be over time.

However not enough people care about that to change the system, by the time people are of an age or condition to be suffering due to the current set up they aren't in a position of power to actually change anything so it carries on the same as younger generations in society don't prioritise it as its not something that currently impacts them.

I did home care for 2 years and it's exhausting
You never stop and if it's double calls it's pretty physical too
Plus dealing with angry families, awkward calls, no time between them, unsuitable houses, the office putting pressure on your day off or to pick up more calls

Did it full time for a year then part time on top of my day job for another year. I'm decent at it but it killed my back and my car

I disagree that it’s unskilled. I think if you were to have a parent in a care home and cared for by people who had done the job for years and had lots of experience as opposed to a group of people who had no prior experience in this sector , you would see the difference immediately.
It’s not just about basic caring for another person. Most of the time it’s caring for a person with complex needs, skilled use of equipment and understanding of the persons condition.

I agree that it’s deemed “ women’s work” and I’m afraid to say it will never be appreciated. Because according to stereotyping, women enjoy looking after others. As for nurses … well they do it because they “ have a calling to it”🙄and never mind that the pay doesn’t reflect the responsibility.