hi im a full time social care worker,..posh title for a care assistant,(for the elderly)

my compliant is that i think people in my profession are underpaid for the work/care we do/give,...fair enough job satisfaction isnt just about the money,..but kinda makes me feel un-worthy when i get paid the same amount as a domestic,...no disrespect to domestics and all but how can the two jobs offer the same amount of pay..????

I totally agree with you!! My other half does the same work as you and it is a joke how much they pay!

Just to make her money up she has to do 40+ hours! You deserve medals for your profession!

Here, here....Betty is my missus and it's disgusting the hours they do for the pay they get....

No overtime rates, Double time, what the hell is double time...:confused: :confused: :confused:

I think it's time the firemen moved over and left some room for these ladies to picket.....

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

And they dont get extra pay for Christams, New year and Bank holidays. :evil: :!: :evil:

Your girls in the wrong place mate, i'll PM you with the 1 my missus works @....they do actually get X-mas pay and bank hols @ 1 1/2

Can you do the same in return cos my missus is planning to go 2 another home and assusres me she doesn't wanna work where your missus does if they don't pay ya hols....

:rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:

I had the same problem when i was a dental nurse, at the time even though i was qualified i was paid the same as someone in the same practice who wasn't. Now everyone has to be qualified so its a lot farer. Is there a qualification for care assistants? if not then there should be, if only to give better pay and recognition, you find they are the backbone of most NHS organisation, and private ones come to that!

I'm a nursery nurse and I don't get good pay either, I do 45 hours a week for around 10 grand.

Guys, forgive me if this sounds unsympathetic, but stop whining! ;) Nobody forces anyone to do these jobs. When people apply, they are told what the pay is, and what the terms and conditions are. If people later feel that they are underpaid for what they do, they should ask for a raise, and if they don't get one, start looking for something else!

K x

Oooooh Kristian, you are such a nerd...

If ppl were to take your advice and everyone done that then the elderly would have to look after themselves....carers are in that profession because well, believe it or not they care....

Originally posted by BobDaBuilder
Oooooh Kristian, you are such a nerd...

If ppl were to take your advice and everyone done that then the elderly would have to look after themselves....carers are in that profession because well, believe it or not they care....

Please stop name caling. I have a valid point.

If nursing homes were unable to get staff because of the salaries offered, then they would have to increase same; simple economics! While ever pople are prepared to work for the salaries offered, this won't happen.

K x

Originally posted by BobDaBuilder
Oooooh Kristian, you are such a nerd...

carers are in that profession because well, believe it or not they care....

No Bob it's not that.......People don't do that particuar job because they genuinely CARE, they do it to earn money as Kristian rightly points out. You are using the word Care out of context to pull sympathy for underpaid Care workers, ( although I agree they are underpaid). If a care worker went on to qualify as, say, an accountant with the potential to earn much more, he/she wouldn't then say No, I care too much for the elderly, I'm staying here. No, they would be off like a shot.

People will always work for pennies. You might have a bottom salary limit you would be willing to work for but there is always going to be someone less well off willing to do it for less.

in reply to magnetee or whatever the name,.. indeed some ppl would be off like a shot,..but other people in that profession do actually care, and would say no,..not many but some,

dont think your point was fair in saying that the post was just to get sympathy when it wasnt,..just an opinion!

(bettyboobs)!
xx

Originally posted by BobDaBuilder
in reply to magnetee or whatever the name,.. indeed some ppl would be off like a shot,..but other people in that profession do actually care, and would say no,..not many but some,

dont think your point was fair in saying that the post was just to get sympathy when it wasnt,..just an opinion!

(bettyboobs)!
xx

You're right Bob; much better to keep it fair! Whatever extreme measure will Magnateer resort to next? After all they resorted to making a valid comment, maybe next step should be name calling? :loopy:

think this thread is better off closed afterall i was only expressing an opinion,... but seems like that isnt allowed on ere,..

o well :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Originally posted by BettyBoobs
think this thread is better off closed afterall i was only expressing an opinion,... but seems like that isnt allowed on ere,..

o well :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: Can anyone tell me how many years of training and exams have to be taken for a person to become a care assistant?
I did 7 years training and 6 month interval exams.....without the books that they allow today.....
This was for engineering......

Of course you are expressing your opinion, as you are entitled to do on a forum such as this, but there's no need to take your ball home just because other people don't agree with you.

I was going to say basically the same as Kristian, but was going to try and be more tactful.

But he said it well enough anyway.

Firstly, I don't know anyone who thinks they are paid enough. Everyone always believes that they deserve more.

Secondly, you aren't assigned a job at birth, if you don't like the pay and conditions get a better one. If you can't for some reason (ie no qualifications) then you've made your bed, now lie in it. Actually that's not tactful at all, oh well, I only said I was going to try.

I quite like my job, but at the end of the day the only reason I work is because I get paid. Whilst there might be a few care assistants who would continue to work if for example they won the lottery, i'd predict that 95% would quit immediately (as would I).

The wage is determined by supply and demand, there's no mystical rule that says there's always someone who'll work for low pay. If that were the case then bank managers, solicitors and the Prime Minister would all be low paid jobs. The difference is that care assistant is 'relatively' unskilled and doesn't require a great deal in the way of career building or qualifications to reach, so it's a large pool of potential employees. As the pool gets smaller for harder jobs, the wage goes up.

Originally posted by BettyBoobs
think this thread is better off closed afterall i was only expressing an opinion,... but seems like that isnt allowed on ere,..

o well :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

It appears to me that over the past twelve months there has been a general decline in the quality of contributor to this forum. It's now got more than it's fair share of morons but don't take any of them too seriously. Having a wife who has worked in the caring/nursing medical field for quite a few years I can appreciate the job you do and your right, you aren't paid enough. You do a challenging job and very few people out there have the committment and vocation that is required to fulfil your role.
Keep up the good work as some of us appreciate your contribution to those less fortunate than ourselves and to society as a whole

If only I could dismiss everyone who ever disagreed with me as a moron, arguments would be so much easier. Why argue if I can simply dismiss any differing view that easily.
But also, why discuss it at all if all I want is people to agree with me.

What about training to be a social worker? They get paid more. Though you would have to become a student ;)

You all have a point about your wages, but you do have a choice,what about the true carers, people who have to take care of others and never had a choice, I am the sole carer of two people,when I was 59, I recieved about £43.00, and for that I had to do at least 35 hours caring per person,and just because I have two to care for,that isn't doubled, it's still the same£43.00,
Now when I was 60,I became a pensioner, I got my oap pension,but they took my carers allowance of me, so did I sit with my feet up, and enjoy my retirement, not a chance, I was still caring for two people, and the situation was getting worse every day,
only now I don't get anything for caring,and no holiday pay, no sickpay, and being that I've cared for nearly forty years, and saved this country thousands of pounds,my pensions rubbish too, so please before you all moan, walk a mile in a true cares shoes,I'm not moaning about it but there are thousands of us that wish we had a choice.Oh!I forgot, we don't get any training, you have to make it up as you go along, because nobody's interested anyway.

Originally posted by Cyclone
If only I could dismiss everyone who ever disagreed with me as a moron, arguments would be so much easier. Why argue if I can simply dismiss any differing view that easily.
But also, why discuss it at all if all I want is people to agree with me.

Well said Cyclone! :thumbsup:

K x

Originally posted by Cyclone
As the pool gets smaller for harder jobs, the wage goes up.

If only. In these circumstances the govt.'s solution has usually been to dish out work permits in third-world countries. :P

Betty,

It seems that many agree that care workers are underpaid, sadly it also seems that most people don't care. Of course if you got organised and went on strike for better pay you'd be as roundly condemned as if you were nurses or doctors...for putting your clients at risk.

Originally posted by Kristian
Please stop name caling. I have a valid point.

If nursing homes were unable to get staff because of the salaries offered, then they would have to increase same; simple economics! While ever pople are prepared to work for the salaries offered, this won't happen.

K x
Some care homes are run on a non-profit basis, If an elderly person (over 65) has no assests or savings they depend upon the "social security" system to pay the bed fee's. Sheffield pays a maximum of about £265 a week for a person to be cared for in a residential home, when the rent, rates running costs have been paid out the remaining is paid to staff. I totally agree 100% that carers should be recognised as skilled workers and paid accordingly, but how?. If someone is in need of care and has no money should they be left to fend for themselves? It realy gets my back up when the media is swamped with outcrys of nurses and their pay (this is no dig at the nurses out there at all, just the system) and the care assistants and domestic staff that are working with, at times very demanding people and even more demanding abusive relatives they jst don't get recognised for their contribution.

Originally posted by Greybeard
If only. In these circumstances the govt.'s solution has usually been to dish out work permits in third-world countries. :P

Betty,

It seems that many agree that care workers are underpaid, sadly it also seems that most people don't care. Of course if you got organised and went on strike for better pay you'd be as roundly condemned as if you were nurses or doctors...for putting your clients at risk.

i don't think artificial restrictions on the job market would help, not in the long run.
But I was talking about jobs where the pool of workers is smaller because the job requires more experience, more qualifications or more education. Foreigners with the requisite skills are generally quite happy working in their own countries, so visas being available won't fill the gap and bring prices back down.

Originally posted by BobDaBuilder
Oooooh Kristian, you are such a nerd...



BobDaBuilder - perhaps, on reflection, you will appreciate that this is not an intelligent contribution on your part. Name calling simply detracts from your points of view, and diminishes you in the process.

If you can't debate without recourse to silly cat-calling, why not accept the logic of your tag-line - and recognise you've lost the argument. You could then ponder on who really must have the smallest dick. Give it a rest.

Originally posted by Cyclone
i don't think artificial restrictions on the job market would help, not in the long run.


What artificial restrictions are you talking about ? Are there any restrictions on who care home owners can recruit for care assistant posts ? It doesn't seem so.

The general perception seems to be that caring for our elderly population, many with chronic illnesses and afflicted with incontinence and varying degrees of dementia is of no more value than sweeping the streets or collecting our household refuse etc.

From a report by the 'Shaping Our Lives' group...

"Social care is not rocket science. It is much more complex and subtle than that. Service users stress that it needs workers with vital human qualities of warmth, empathy, honesty, respect and competence. It needs an operating system to get such qualities and skills to the sharp end routinely and reliably, so that they are the everyday experience of service users.

The reality is a workforce of more than a million, mostly operating with pay and conditions on a par with supermarket shelf-stackers, yet expected to do some of the most intimate and sensitive work imaginable."

Better pay coupled with formal training and qualifications would attract more professionally motivated workers to the job and eliminate the recurring scandals of mistreatment and abuse of old people. At the moment paying peanuts attracts too many monkeys into the job.

why not just quote me completely out of context.

Artificial restrictions to the job market being the requirement to have a visa for a foreigner to do a skilled job, is what I was talking about.

Originally posted by Greybeard
What artificial restrictions are you talking about ? Are there any restrictions on who care home owners can recruit for care assistant posts ? It doesn't seem so.

The general perception seems to be that caring for our elderly population, many with chronic illnesses and afflicted with incontinence and varying degrees of dementia is of no more value than sweeping the streets or collecting our household refuse etc.

From a report by the 'Shaping Our Lives' group...

"Social care is not rocket science. It is much more complex and subtle than that. Service users stress that it needs workers with vital human qualities of warmth, empathy, honesty, respect and competence. It needs an operating system to get such qualities and skills to the sharp end routinely and reliably, so that they are the everyday experience of service users.

The reality is a workforce of more than a million, mostly operating with pay and conditions on a par with supermarket shelf-stackers, yet expected to do some of the most intimate and sensitive work imaginable."

Better pay coupled with formal training and qualifications would attract more professionally motivated workers to the job and eliminate the recurring scandals of mistreatment and abuse of old people. At the moment paying peanuts attracts too many monkeys into the job.

Couldn't agree with you lot more, there are some really good people in these homes and like all places there are people just there for the money, I know Betty personally and I know she is one of the small minority of caring carers (Afterall, without going to much into too much detail she only got in the profession cos of family experience).

I agree there should be strict regulations to who should be taken on, it shows at her home there is no petting done at all, CRB aside...there has been roughly 1 new starter every week in the 9 months she has been doing her job, and it was only 2-3 weeks ago she was assulted by another member of staff which I went and sorted out for her....one of the biggest problems is cheap staffing by taking on african/asian immigrants who are very young and can't speak english at even a basic level,and have no motivation @ all....

Personally if I had a relative in one of these places I would be disgusted at the turnover, staff respect etc....the money the service users pay to stay there you would expect a decent level of care @ the very least.

Originally posted by Applegrim
You all have a point about your wages, but you do have a choice,what about the true carers, people who have to take care of others and never had a choice, I am the sole carer of two people,when I was 59, I recieved about £43.00, and for that I had to do at least 35 hours caring per person,and just because I have two to care for,that isn't doubled, it's still the same£43.00,
Now when I was 60,I became a pensioner, I got my oap pension,but they took my carers allowance of me, so did I sit with my feet up, and enjoy my retirement, not a chance, I was still caring for two people, and the situation was getting worse every day,
only now I don't get anything for caring,and no holiday pay, no sickpay, and being that I've cared for nearly forty years, and saved this country thousands of pounds,my pensions rubbish too, so please before you all moan, walk a mile in a true cares shoes,I'm not moaning about it but there are thousands of us that wish we had a choice.Oh!I forgot, we don't get any training, you have to make it up as you go along, because nobody's interested anyway.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. And I want to say how much I admire you for doing a thankless task. People think that caring comes easily (until such a time they have to do it themselves), but it's not, it's VERY hard work.

I sincerely wish for good health among my family and friends.

Originally posted by BoroughGal
I agree with you wholeheartedly. And I want to say how much I admire you for doing a thankless task. People think that caring comes easily (until such a time they have to do it themselves), but it's not, it's VERY hard work.

I sincerely wish for good health among my family and friends.

Got to agree BG! Home carers really are the unsung heros of our society. My hat comes off to anyone that does this!

K x

[Edit:
Those of you who work as unpaid care assistants may be interested in this forum: http://myclivey.proboards38.com/ ]