Just thought i would put a point over for any Care Workers who may read this, who may feel that they are being mistreated by their Employers, by working long hours etc.
As a provider of Home Care who employs a great number of staff paying well over the NMW plus travel time @ NMW and mileage we are now faced as a Company to tender for ALL our Social Services work which equates to 95% of our turnover to start in April 2013 with a ceiling rate of a reduction of 30% which will be in force for at LEAST 5 years with NO uplift, we pay our Care Workers the hourly rate on the basis of current provider rates, as a Company we do not have any way in recouping this 30%, so we will be taking a massive hit in our turnover and ultimately our profit which we reinvest into the Company to make sure our training is the best in the area. as a Director of this Company it is a strssful time, will we be successful in our tenders? who knows.
Social Services are always saying that the quality of care provided is the most important yet they are now saying cost will determine who gets work over quality, where does that leave the Service User?, I can see another Panorama programme very soon if this continues in the Home Care Sector.
To put it bluntly within a short space of time, my Company has been deemed as non saleable with a very uncertain future, i wonder if many other Providers are feeling the stress of all these cuts, and how are they coping.
I'm pretty sure you *know* you're not alone in this..
Having to tender for all work [do you mean for a spot contract or a block contract?] is more than common - for a certain level of business it is an EU directive AND has to be tendered Europe wide!
However, I am becoming more than concerned that at these tender processes, a 'maximum' figure is being quoted which undermines an open and free tender process. I'm not a Lawyer but I reckon this could amount to an unfair practice on the part of the LA...
There is no doubt that things are going to get worse and the thrust and drive that existed to elevate the standing and role of [dom] care workers together with quality provision is just being thrown away. LA's are no longer concerned with the reality of all of this. They continue to talk of compliance with their 'contractual' requirements and provider compliance without any concern for how it is to be funded. The first thing to go, in my view, will be training to the extent you probably carry it out now. Bare minimum for business/care worker registration requirements will be the norm as others try to remain in business by hiring the cheapest staff they can find - which will include migrant workers. You will also start to run a two tier workforce as you replace existing staff [through natural wastage] with cheaper workers - remember that all other agancies will be in exactly the same boat and cannot offer high pay rates..
You'll reduce any management structure you have in place, field/line managers, team leaders, supervisors...that sort of thing and probably cut back on salaried staff as far as is possible. Turnover will fall anyway as the LA force more people through government directive onto PB's which then become, for whoever gets the work, private clients [the upside of this is that you don't have to jump through the LA hoops in your care provision, rostering, delivery etc..] and you will most probably just go back to the most basic of operating ethos for a care provider agency.
The LA [..and by that, I don't mean the Care Managers] and senior management don't understand the mechanics of actually putting care provision into peoples homes ...they are just tasked with saving huge sums of money and do so by crisis management of the overall care provision process.
Care providers will be put out of business and worse, the skills of existing staff will be lost as they move out into more secure and better paid jobs.
Be happy to talk further with you, if you wish..... I'm in the South and have a similar experience to you...
pj
It does seem certain that pressure is going to increase on employers and employees - I am not sure I know though where the 'more secure and better paid jobs' are that 'pj' thinks employees will move to! If anyone has any suggestions where they might be, I think a lot of people would be interested in them.
Oh, most major supermarkets are paying well above minimum wage rates - many over £7 ph [ok, this is geographically variable, I know]
But the context is in the notion that dom care providers will need to recruit new staff at low (er) pay rates - and in doing so will engage in a two tier pay scale system - and will probably consider migrant workers at minimum level.
I'm not suggesting it's any easier in any other working environment or, indeed, there are endless jobs on offer but....... many, many employers are paying well above minimum wage levels... the dom care sector is being driven down into minimum wage level rates and the consequences that will follow that as it becomes impossible to recruit and retain staff of ANY description, never mind finding good, caring staff.
According the the government ...NO LA should need to cut social care budgets. In reality, most, if not all, are and worse...some claim they are actually increasing funding into social care!
It's a ludicrous situation. One LA is cutting the social care budget this year by £3.95M but continues to state publically they are increasing funding by £1M at the very same time.....
Decisions are being made at local level of government because of the ideology of central government...that's clear but.... within the local decisions being taken, funding is being stripped from social care at the expense of the old and vulnerable whilst savings of the same magnitude are not being applied to other sectors. [in my experience, that is ]
Care workers clearly see the issue at the level of their employer(s) but the over riding issue actually is that LA's [for whatever reason..] are driving down costs, raising threshholds and shipping our care provision wholesale into PB's - after which they hope and insist they have no further *social care* responsibility. Cutting call times down to 15 minutes or 30 minutes maximum at the same time as forcing unrealistic rates that are commercially unsustainable [..and that applies to ALL care providers] will bring the whole sector to its knees within 18 months.
The whole notion of *care* and *caring* is being torn from the whole process of provision. It's a question of getting the job done as quickly as possible and little more.
Telephone assessments [!] for PB's in the first instance [how anyone on the phone can detect the environment of the client, possibilities of accidents, possibilites of abuse etc., etc., I have no idea] followed up by raising thresholds for social care inclusion to critical level requirements only is depriving older vulnerable adults from receiving care and support they *should* be getting. But it all means money saved and money staying in the budget which the management wil then use as a public display of how well they have manged things in a difficult environment.
In an effort to force through all these changes and attitudes and operating ethos, one LA has moved on, moved around and made redundant the whole care management team - replacing it slowly by new employees that have no idea on how things *should* be done, *need* to be done and won't question the new regime. Brilliant.
Each and every person should remember very, very carefully what persuasion their elected local councillors are when the time comes to put a cross in a tick box. [at a broader level, when the time comes to elect ones MP also..........]
We have both spot and block contracts, the tender for the block contract was won in 2010 for 3 years, this has now been reduced to 2 years without any consultation.
My ethos for my Company is that we have the best trained and professional carers we can possibly have so the care we deliver is second to none, I will not run a Care Company where the provision of care is below my own acceptable levels and employ unskilled staff just so that the LA can pat themselves on the back for all the savings thay have made, with no regard to the outcomes to the service User and local business.
Mrs F
Then that is a breach of contract [unless your contract states specifically the term of the contract is variable]
With regard to local councillors or even the local MP, I have gone down that route, to try and establish if central government really knows what is happening out in the real world, but they are just not interested, which when the time comes for my vote I just won't be interested, emigrating seems such a good idea at this moment. I am dreading the next 12/18 months, looking on the bright side something like this could start the shout for a general election, as the cost cutting hasn't started to bite yet, so i am waiting with baited breath.
The funding will not be there to maintain such an ethos. Sad as it is - and we hold much the same ethos as you - to remain in business cuts will have to be made. Training is the obvious first choice but by no mens the only one...
still happy to talk with you if you wish...?
If you want, email promuso@gmail.com and we can arrange something. I suspect we have a fair bit in common.
The breach of contract is a legal matter...... ask your LA for a dispute resolution [it will be written into your contract I'm sure] to resolve the matter.
I'm with you on this one, we have already taken a large paycut from LA and will be having another in the next 6 months. No payrises for any staff in the last 3 years and no sight of one for the next 3 years. As for the tendering, well, lets just all forget about providing decent care to vulnerable people because that has gone out of the window!
If it wasn't for my conscientious hardworking CARING staff this business would have gone.