Family / Kinship Carers : Juggle Work With Caring ? 110,000 Paid Care Workers Short & More LA Cutbacks Due !

[Chris From The Gulag]

Summary of a few threads rolled into this one.

GOVERNMENT ... want more of us to juggle work with caring ( Both " You know whos " applaud ).

LAs / NHS ... recent reports of burden of social care never been greater on family / kinship carers ( Confirmed by Professor Luke Clements ).

Even our very own Lord Kitch doesn't know which way to turn !

Okay chaps , which of you has the greater demand ?

Simple economics ... if demand exceeds supply , the price will rise.

So ... if you are in competition for our services , how about a bidding war ?

That would be the outcome in any business or industry.

However , this Carerland.

Perhaps a new 8 day week , 25 hours per day ... on the Statute book ... just for us ?

Never has there been a greater opportunity for our voice to be heard.

We seriously do hold a full house ... aces over eights ... the classic dead man's hand !



And yet , our contribution will continue to be taken for granted by all and sundry.

I wonder what the carers of 2048 will make of the carers of 2018 ?

" Folding ... with that hand ? Unbelievable ! "

So say the now 18 MILLION strong carer army ... in unison.

2048 ... now another has joined the century club ... 1,346 carers aged over a 100 ... 1,500+ expected by 2050.

If started caring young , and across generations , 80 / 90 years of caring ... and no life that they can call their own ... servient to their caree.

Still , that's the future ... based on present assumptions ... and another issue entirely ... for now ?

[Chris From The Gulag]

Yet more evidence ... demand for US to plug the chasms ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45593814

Care job vacancies in England rise to 110,000.

About 110,000 jobs in adult care in England are left vacant, a rise of 22,000 in a year, according to workforce data.

Training charity Skills for Care said the vacancy rate had risen from an estimated 6.6% in 2017 to 8% in 2018.

It said employers found it a "challenge" to get people with the "right values" for care work.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it is going to run a recruitment campaign.

The statistics also show 31% of carers left or changed jobs in 2017-18.

The average pay for council care employees was £9.80 an hour, while the average pay per hour in the private sector was £8.12.

Skills for Care chief executive Sharon Allen said: "Employers often tell us their biggest issue is finding people with the right values to work in adult social care and this report shows the scale of that challenge."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: "We want to promote adult social care as a rewarding career of choice and attract and retain staff to the profession

"We are working to ensure the system is able to meet the demands of our growing ageing population and will soon launch a recruitment campaign to further raise the profile of the sector."

( What about us ? Time to reward us in the same way as opposed to screwing us by dumping more NHS patients into our care ? )


Who wants to be a poorly trained care worker in a thankless sector ?

Who wants to be a family / kinship carer in a sector more akin to slave labour.

Funny old world ?

Our numbers swell daily ... becoming mere slaves must have some attractions ?

[Rosemary_1706]

I just browsed the Carers UK site and signed its letter to government timidly begging for 8.50 gbp per week increase in carers' allowance in England to keep up with Scotland's planned increase!!!!!

I am hoping that this is not the full extent of our organization's efforts to influence government policy! We need to be doing more than playing catch up to Scotland.

I would like to see some material response from Carers UK but am doubtful in this regard. Please prove me wrong!

[Chris From The Gulag]

The pay rise that isn't a pay rise ?

https://www.carersuk.org/forum/social-a ... rers-34307

I would add my paw print to a campaign for an actual increase in CA ... if ever launched by Carers UK ... bearing in mind that members resolution passed at their agm way back in 2004 ... a little more than what's on the menu today ?

Coupled with a major removal of barriers to claiming said CA , only 1 in 11 actually claim CA , I would be inclined to add a second paw print.

How do I spell " X " ... ?

[Rosemary_1706]

Exactly. Makes me wonder as we struggle on here best we can, including carers in Scotland, that Carers UK paid staff are congratulating themselves for composing such a meek letter. Little wonder we are where we are.

[Chris From The Gulag]

To UNDERSTAND CarerLand , it is essential to be a family / kinship carer or . like me , a former one.

Cannot be done from an ivory tower reading a textbook ... no textbook exists on CarerLand.

Existing on the same rations as dished out , occasionly , to the 7.8 million also sharpens one's instinct for justice ?

Getting paid to keep us in our gulag has never been palatable.

Even Carers UK's own " Oliver " doesn't get paid for his annual appeal ... hasn't been for 40 odd years !



Perhaps a case of Oliver asking CUK ... " Please sir , can I have some more ? "

Sorry Ollie , only Trussells out there that can REALLY help !

[Chris From The Gulag]

Just to add a little political flavouring to this thread ... Brexit ?

Take back control of our own borders ... restrict immigration along the lines of Australia and Canada.

'Ang on a mo !

Projected shortages of labour in social care ?

Can't do the traditional thing and increase wages to attract labour ... no monies as it is let alone raise taxes to do so ?

Perhaps a return to the " Windrush " formula back in the 1950s ?

Bringing in labour to do the jobs that most Brits don't want to do ?

Lincolnshire ... would be a waste land by now if it weren't for mainly East European labour ( And a few illegal Ukranian / Russian interlopers to boot ).

( Met my first Ukranian doing just that a couple of months ago ... visiting one of my immediate neighbours ... dropped in for a quick chat. )

New immigration rules to come post Brexit ... full of holes in certain categories ?

If so , why did so many vote for Brexit with that problem in mind ?

HIstory ... has a nasty 'abit of repeating itself ???

One for ALL politicians to swallow ... many with a double shot of single malt ... a few with a drop of cyanide ?

Brexit ?

That's the easy bit.

Social care ?

Come 2048 , we should have an indication of what can be salvaged from the ruins of what we , today , understand to be social care.

[Chris From The Gulag]

Demand for us ?

Now to be even greater ... plugging the gaps in so called support services ?

English councils brace for biggest government cuts since 2010 despite 'unprecedented' budget pressures.

Main source of government funding for local authorities set to be slashed by 36 per cent next year, warn councils.

Councils are facing the biggest cuts to government funding since 2010 despite unprecedented pressure and demand, which could risk “tipping many over the edge”, local authorities have warned.

Figures show that the revenue support grant – the main source of government funding for local services – will be cut by 36 per cent next year, marking the largest annual deduction in almost a decade.

It comes despite repeated warnings that continuing cuts to vital local authority provisions mean vulnerable people, such as the elderly, at-risk children and homeless people, are being left to “fend for themselves”.

An analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA) reveals that, overall, councils will have suffered a 77 per cent decrease in the government funding between 2015/16 and next year, dropping from £9,927m in 2015-16 to £2,284m in 2019-20.

Almost half of all councils (168) will receive no support grant next year – marking a threefold rise on this year and a more than tenfold increase on 2017/18, the figures show.

JUGGLE WORK WITH POTENTIALLY EXTRA CARING ???

THAT'S WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANT EACH AND EVERY FAMILY / KINSHIP CARER TO DO !

EVEN CUK APPROVED OF THAT STATEMENT ... BEFORE EVENTS / REPORTS SHOT IT DOWN IN FLAMES !

TAPER ON THAT £ 120 ?

WELCOMED BUT ... HOW MANY HOURS ARE THERE IN A DAY ?

SOON TO BE IN EXCESS OF 24 IN CARERLAND ?

[Chris From The Gulag]

Interesting ... the potential Brexit factor to be added to the mix ... in the future :

Low-skill migration to fall after Brexit, promises May.

Workers wanting to stay for longer periods would need a minimum salary, to "ensure they are not competing with people already in the UK"

Shortage of care workers ... vacancies ... WHO is going to fill them ?

Lower skilled non UK workers ?

According to Madam President ( Blake 7 ) ... NO.

So , short of the Job Centres sending out press gangs , WHO is going to fill these vacancies ?

Or , perhaps , in this new grand scheme of things , are family members to be told ... " They're your problem , your responsibility to care for them ! " ... the cheering can be heard from the traditional Right ?

There again , the Government want us to juggle work with caring ?

One reason why I kicked this issue upstairs to Carers UK !

Nothing adds up ... unless the burden IS to be placed on us ?

NOBODY HAS ASKED US FOR OUR VIEWS ... DO THEY EVER ???

WORK ?

OKAY ... A FEW CAN DO THAT JUGGLING ACT BUT ... WHO LOOKS AFTER OUR CAREE , AND AT WHAT PRICE ?

NO FREE ADULT CARE FOR ENCOURAGEMENT ... THAT'S RESTRICTED TO CHILDREN !

CHILD CARE NURSERIES / ADULT CARE CENTRES ... NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL PARITY !!!

[bowlingbun]

At college, we were often told that for every threat there is an opportunity, and vice versa.

It is absolute nonsense to pay a low paid disinterested person to care for someone who is elderly and disabled when there is someone highly motivated to care for the same person - a family carer.

Once the shortage of people to be paid carers becomes overwhelming, the government might just realise that the solution has been staring them in the face for years.

PAY FAMILY CARERS THE MINIMUM WAGE FOR OUR 35 HOURS OF CARE A WEEK!