[Misc] I’m giving up social care.. anyone else?

[The Clamp]

Taking a trip on the UK inland waterways sounds idyllic.
Apart from waterside pubs, to my knowledge I don't think there's any night clubs on the Grand Union Canal, especially around here.
Rickmansworth does have care homes

Seriously though, I hope you find something that has less hours and gives you more time for yourself.
I'm 56 this year and DO plan to retire at 60 and not to do anymore shift work

Haha! Good luck to you too. Shift work is hard. We will enjoy our retirement even more though!

 

[Insel affe]

Anyone else moving out of nursing, social care etc?

5 years of low paid and high risk work in the social care sector, I’m getting out. Nothing changed after the pandemic, it got worse. I regularly work 72 hour weeks. I cannot survive without overtime. We work 12 hour shifts week nights and 15 hour shifts on weekends. Only got a pay rise when the min wage went up. I had to take some annual leave these last two months or lose it.
Meaning I couldn’t do much overtime. I literally cannot afford to take annual leave.
As a result I’ve had to borrow off a mate to pay for travel to work and buy food.

I became sick of being treated like a mug so last week I went and did my SIA license, I’ve been offered decent work already when my license clears.

Go into work night after night and get called every name under the sun by the people I’m helping for min wage or get paid 6 quid more an hour to go and sit in an empty office block overnight? No brainer.

Goodbye social care, I’d like to say it’s been good. It hasn’t. It’s been miserable.

Anyone else in this situation?

Sorry to hear this Mr Clamp, you were/are doing an admirable job, it sounds like the insufficient pay and undue docking of wages has taken it's toll on you, more than the job itself. I doff my hat to you sir, we are losing far to many good folks like you, when we should be rewarding you instead with relevant support and pay.

Good luck in your next venture.

 

[BadFish]

Good luck to you, the world needs more people who do things for others. And IMHO those people would be among the highest paid in our society.

I am on my way out of teaching, lots of people in education burning out over here in Australia. Not sure if this is what has happened to me but I have certainly had enough of working endless unpaid hours for no money and no recognition. I felt for years that it was a case of give and take what with the holidays/flexibility and some recognition of what we do. Seems like the give and take has become more and more a case of giving teachers more and more work and taking the ****ing piss.

And we have it could in comparison to teaching assistants etc.

Of course now the government are scratching their heads and wondering why people are leaving in droves.

Twats.

 

[BLOCK F]

Good luck with whatever you choose to do, Clampy.
It sounds like you have worked your bollocks off for very little reward over the years.
I hope you realise your dream re the boat and travelling the waterways, it sounds like a great idea.

 

[The Clamp]

Good luck with whatever you choose to do, Clampy.
It sounds like you have worked your bollocks off for very little reward over the years.
I hope you realise your dream re the boat and travelling the waterways, it sounds like a great idea.

Thanks BF. Much appreciated

 

[The Clamp]

Good luck to you, the world needs more people who do things for others. And IMHO those people would be among the highest paid in our society.

I am on my way out of teaching, lots of people in education burning out over here in Australia. Not sure if this is what has happened to me but I have certainly had enough of working endless unpaid hours for no money and no recognition. I felt for years that it was a case of give and take what with the holidays/flexibility and some recognition of what we do. Seems like the give and take has become more and more a case of giving teachers more and more work and taking the ****ing piss.

And we have it could in comparison to teaching assistants etc.

Of course now the government are scratching their heads and wondering why people are leaving in droves.

Twats.

I am constantly shocked at how teachers are treated in so many countries. When you consider the responsibility of educating children to basically take charge one day. Mad. I hope you find something that you find fulfilling and less stressful.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Anyone else moving out of nursing, social care etc?

5 years of low paid and high risk work in the social care sector, I’m getting out. Nothing changed after the pandemic, it got worse. I regularly work 72 hour weeks. I cannot survive without overtime. We work 12 hour shifts week nights and 15 hour shifts on weekends. Only got a pay rise when the min wage went up. I had to take some annual leave these last two months or lose it.
Meaning I couldn’t do much overtime. I literally cannot afford to take annual leave.
As a result I’ve had to borrow off a mate to pay for travel to work and buy food.

I became sick of being treated like a mug so last week I went and did my SIA license, I’ve been offered decent work already when my license clears.

Go into work night after night and get called every name under the sun by the people I’m helping for min wage or get paid 6 quid more an hour to go and sit in an empty office block overnight? No brainer.

Goodbye social care, I’d like to say it’s been good. It hasn’t. It’s been miserable.

Anyone else in this situation?

Horrible to hear but such a common story. Thanks for sticking it out as long as you did. Good luck with your life plan The Clamp.

 

[Acker79]

Conservative austerity policy forced me out almost ten years ago. The place I was working in couldn't afford to keep going when council rates were frozen or reduced, leading to redundancy and a career change.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

A very sad story. But until tax payers in the UK are willing to pay more in tax nothing will change with health care.

Yes and no. More tax income for the government is good but the government has to fund health, justice, schools etc properly.

Cutting subsidised meals and bars at Westminster would contribute towards the health budget, for example.

 

[JamesAndTheGiantHead]

Social Worker here - feel like the whole system is on the brink of collapse. Lots of local authority staff have left in droves in the past two/three years and there are more locum staff being drafted in every week. Care homes just about getting by with an unhealthy reliance on agency staff and the good will of support workers to carry out insane amounts of overtime.

Shambles. Genuinely thinking about becoming a postman or something.

 

[BadFish]

I am constantly shocked at how teachers are treated in so many countries. When you consider the responsibility of educating children to basically take charge one day. Mad. I hope you find something that you find fulfilling and less stressful.

Cheers, Got a few things on the go at the moment including special eduation (crying out for people but possibly out of the frying pan and into the fire), Advocacy work for students with autism and their families and , tutoring and advocating for people with disabilities to get the support from the government agency (NDIS).

I think that at some point soon Australia is going to take some significant steps in how we work with our neurodivergent people (South Australia have just created a position of Minister of Autism and primised a specialist autistic teacher in every primary school) I would like to be in a position to help when this happens.

Good luck with yours too. I love the boat idea

 

[Blue3]

It’s a crime that social health staff are being forced out through bullying poor pay and excessive hours lack of regulation and employees representation are the immediate remedies, but why are we in this situation in the first place well you need to go back to Thatcher’s reforms which created the false dichotomy of health v social care. The private sector took over most of the ‘social’ aspects of care and the NHS and Social Services budgets were cut.

Meanwhile If you can’t do your own personal care you get ill, If you can’t shop, clean your house you get ill, If you suffer loneliness and isolation you get I’ll and it’s the health that has to pick up treatments for illness but they no longer have control of the route into social care as it’s largely privately owned and run for profit.

I worked 37 years in the NHS and during that time we had both Labour and Tory Government’s and can say without any favour that whenever we had a Tory Government it resulted in cuts both financially and organisationally allowing private companies access into elements of Health and social care, I retired earlier than I might otherwise did due to the pressures this had imposed over 37 years.

The Clamp I sympathise with your current situation we can ill afford to lose people with your dedication and experience from the already creaking social care which only puts more pressure onto an already over stretched health care service not helped by Brexit and it’s affects of reducing staffing levels.

Good luck in your new venture Clamp

 

[Si Gull]

Until we start valuing the care sector in terms of pay we are ****ed. Care workers perform an essential service but get paid a pittance. Bankers, for example, gamble with other people's money and get paid a fortune. Same could be said for many other professions, including footballers. I'm not an economist and have no answers but I do know that the current system is irretrievably broken.

 

[Happy Exile]

Anyone else moving out of nursing, social care etc?

5 years of low paid and high risk work in the social care sector, I’m getting out. Nothing changed after the pandemic, it got worse. I regularly work 72 hour weeks. I cannot survive without overtime. We work 12 hour shifts week nights and 15 hour shifts on weekends. Only got a pay rise when the min wage went up. I had to take some annual leave these last two months or lose it.
Meaning I couldn’t do much overtime. I literally cannot afford to take annual leave.
As a result I’ve had to borrow off a mate to pay for travel to work and buy food.

I became sick of being treated like a mug so last week I went and did my SIA license, I’ve been offered decent work already when my license clears.

Go into work night after night and get called every name under the sun by the people I’m helping for min wage or get paid 6 quid more an hour to go and sit in an empty office block overnight? No brainer.

Goodbye social care, I’d like to say it’s been good. It hasn’t. It’s been miserable.

Anyone else in this situation?

Best of luck to you and well done for sticking out a brutally exploitative position for so long. It's catastrophic for society how little we value people who do what you do. I've got mates who work in social care and they are traumatised (not too strong a word) by some of the responsibility they have to take and the potential or realised consequences of some of the decisions they are forced into having to make all while being abused, underpaid and invisible to the rest of society unless something goes so wrong they are demonised for things outside their ability to influence. Hats off to you, and I hope your new role is more rewarding in every way.

 

[southstandandy]

Sorry to hear you leave but I can understand. We use private social care for my father so I appreciate what you have done.

Social care workers are incredibly important but are totally undervalued. The first company we used for my father went out of business due to Brexit as two thirds of the staff were European and either went back home or were not given long term permission to stay. The current company we use pay now £17 per hour and they still cannot attract new staff!

Seems like us Brits just don't want to do this sort of work.

I genuinely hope your new job works out well.

 

[The Clamp]

Conservative austerity policy forced me out almost ten years ago. The place I was working in couldn't afford to keep going when council rates were frozen or reduced, leading to redundancy and a career change.

I hope you are happy in your work now?

 

[giveusfalmerplease]

This is where the minimum wage needs major investment. With the greatest respect to shelf stackers and MacDonald workers, there is no way you should earn the same wage as someone caring for elderly and infirm, often incontinent people. To my knowledge you also need some level of qualifications to be a professional career which is also not recognised. It's just as well our care workers don't go in strike at the drop if a hat like the refuse workers who earn twice minimum wage but strike when they complain that they can't go home early (5 hour shift) when they finish their round early!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Yes and no. More tax income for the government is good but the government has to fund health, justice, schools etc properly.

Cutting subsidised meals and bars at Westminster would contribute towards the health budget, for example.

I agree.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Anyone else moving out of nursing, social care etc?

5 years of low paid and high risk work in the social care sector, I’m getting out. Nothing changed after the pandemic, it got worse. I regularly work 72 hour weeks. I cannot survive without overtime. We work 12 hour shifts week nights and 15 hour shifts on weekends. Only got a pay rise when the min wage went up. I had to take some annual leave these last two months or lose it.
Meaning I couldn’t do much overtime. I literally cannot afford to take annual leave.
As a result I’ve had to borrow off a mate to pay for travel to work and buy food.

I became sick of being treated like a mug so last week I went and did my SIA license, I’ve been offered decent work already when my license clears.

Go into work night after night and get called every name under the sun by the people I’m helping for min wage or get paid 6 quid more an hour to go and sit in an empty office block overnight? No brainer.

Goodbye social care, I’d like to say it’s been good. It hasn’t. It’s been miserable.

Anyone else in this situation?

Best wishes for the future. Perhaps the experience you have accumulated in the last few years may count for something.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This is where the minimum wage needs major investment. With the greatest respect to shelf stackers and MacDonald workers, there is no way you should earn the same wage as someone caring for elderly and infirm, often incontinent people. To my knowledge you also need some level of qualifications to be a professional career which is also not recognised. It's just as well our care workers don't go in strike at the drop if a hat like the refuse workers who earn twice minimum wage but strike when they complain that they can't go home early (5 hour shift) when they finish their round early!

Too complicated, subjective and unworkable. You have one view of a bin man doing 5 hours. I work in a cosy office for 8 hours. Who’s got it harder?