‘Lollolloll
Well they’re obviously not the brightest are they? They’ve had ample warnings and chances to get vaccinated and would rather not do it and be out of work before Christmas?’
^^ This is part of the problem, the lack of respect towards social care staff and the lack of understanding about social care roles. On the whole social care staff are competent, have specialist skills and usually work unsocial hours (Christmas, bank holidays, weekends, evenings).
It’s a complex role these days due to 20 years of fast evolving legislation, enforced through cqc inspection of regulations. To be truly effective employees need experienced, skilled, long serving and reliable staff who have their level 3 in social care (equivalent to three A levels). In addition employees require staff to be medication trained, health and safety trained, prevent trained, personal care trained, lifting and moving trained, food hygiene trained, safeguarding trained, infection control trained, keywork trained, safeguarding trained, whilst having a strong grasp of person centred care and communication with various professionals and families.
It is demanding and draining work with poor career prospects, badly paid, with promotion leading to increased stress and a wage which fails reflect managerial responsibilities.
Retention is a critical issue as high staff turn over and high agency use lowers the quality of care offered to the vulnerable people served.