I've found this thread incredibly interesting. Especially around the set and certain comments from people who claim they are carers. That's a huge range of roles so it's interesting to know in what way they are carers.
See I have spent 23 years in Social care. The last 15 in care services. I've been a carer , a senior , a registered manager and a senior manager then a Director and throughout most of that a trainer. At the height last year I was in a role that meant I sat virtually in front of 50 odd care managers across the country. I sat in front of the Care manager who moved into his service as he had a newborn at home and was worried about both residents and his family if he moved around and he cried for the first time in 20 years when he lost 12 residents in two weeks.
Quite literally my job was to assess the level of care the services were delivering. It was a good high level safe care home.
I saw care staff move heaven and earth , sacrifice everything they had to protect their residents and in Dom the service users.
I sat in front of two different care managers who had been pulling double shifts and were becoming ill from the sheer influx of residents returning from hospital with covid but being forced to take them.
I saw my friends who are carers and senior carers both in domiciliary and residential break themselves.
Not a single one of them would have an issue with this. Noone who has any real professional ability would refuse the vaccination and put their charges at risk.
That said there are a huge amount of people in care for the wrong reasons . People can get lost wittering that "anyone" can be a carer , and that DWP can force people to take these roles. You know they interview and the care manager chooses right ? You honestly think any decent service would allow people in the job just because the DWP said so?. Lots of people think they can be a carer , far less are actually capable of being a good one. In decent places the training is high level , the requirements are intense. Half of MN would fail by the third day.
It's not just washing people and feeding them. There are highly technical aspects but hey .... let's just condescend to them shall we? With stupid generalised views of a role that clearly people wouldn't deign to bother to learn about.
The only care staff , medical issues excluded, that refuse to get the vaccine are the ones that shouldn't be there.
Finally this is a non issue....no decent care manager worth their salt would allow an unvaccinated carer in their service.
It's great to have the privilege of wittering about this and debating it. Care services work insanely long hours , regularly dealing with life and death and get stepped on for the privilege. The decent ones are not debating this , while everyone else is having high brow debates the good ones are getting vaccinated and getting back on the floor. I'm not on the floor currently but ii recognise my privilege.
I am a huge advocate of bodily autonomy but on the floor any decent worker knows its a different world. It's brutal and hard but you keep going because if you don't often your service users have noone else.
I am going to come off this after this post and I male no apology for it because I am so very tired of people commenting on care services when they treat them horrifically, I guarantee you the same ones claiming to support them are the ones talking down to them and treating them like children , it's beyond offensive to claim that anyone claiming benefits can be funnelled in to a role , as if its got no need for ability or training or resilience.
I am tired of awful carers who wouldn't be allowed within ten paces of a decent service trying to speak for everyone else.
They are in the foxhole and it's only getting harder. With the exception of medical need which is totally understood by everyone no decent good carer would ever risk their service users health over this. Its part of the job. I have been back on the ground to help friends and ex colleagues through this and I have heard very little here of people who actually would be rated in the industry. I don't care how long people claim to have been in it or what they claim to do , if you are in Care you know this to be true or you are not good care staff.
Ive given up huge amounts over the years because I understood, as did my colleagues , that it was worth it and it was part of my role. If you are in it for the right reasons you accept there is sacrifice. Being in the job just for money with no understanding of the vocational nature does not make for someone who should be there. It does not mean we don't have boundaries and expectations of fairplay. It does mean we know the difference.