Damian Green, the former First Secretary of State, said Britain’s care system was at risk of collapse unless care workers were paid as much as nurses.
Mr Green, the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on adult social care, said the country desperately needed more care staff and the only way to achieve that was pay parity with NHS nurses.
The Royal College of Nursing wants an increase of 19 per cent, and is set to hold further strike action.
The RCN said the average wage of a UK nurse was £33,384, while the average care worker earns around £23,000. Care workers, most of whom are employed by private firms, have not decided to go on strike.
Anyone even vaguely acquainted with market mechanisms – no strikes, see? – will realise that low pay among care workers is not an urgent problem. And that a 50% pay rise might well be something of an over reaction.
But then this is a Tory MP…..
“If they don’t like the pay, terms and conditions go find another job” seems to be a common mantra on the tv (and some blogs………).
Which is fine until they actually do go find another job.
I suspect that sort of increase in the pay of care workers would inevitably have to be matched by a corresponding increase in qualifications – removing many if not most of the current incumbents and leading to a smaller pool of applicants.
If you dismiss care workers in their droves for not getting jabbed and then complain about shortages of care workers you must score high marks on the David Lammy Index (DLI).
Damian, being a modern Tory, will be out there on the picket lines with the care workers, demanding equality with the newly rich nurses.
Bernie, the increase in qualifications for nurses was for the benefit of the union bosses, not the nurses.
Fortunately, it didn’t disturb the NHS preferred genetic source, because it would be racist to enquire as to the validity of the inkjet printed degree from the univicity…
I thought it was because some numpty mandated covid vaccines for care workers
I understand that, despite the RCN demanding a 19% pay rise for nurses, they have offered their own staff only a 4.5% pay increase. If true, it may be that the RCN can’t afford it, or they don’t hold their staff in as high a regard. On the other hand, if their staff also demand a 19% rise, and get it, would the nurses be happy having to quadruple their union dues? Asking for a friend.
But then this is a Tory MP….
Not to be confused with a now vanished right of centre political party of the same name.
Worth noting the more that is spent on nurses/carers the less is spent on care. It’s called ‘a budget’. And X% of ‘budget’ gets spent on wages, Y% gets spent on patients/residents. To increase X% requires a decrease in Y%.
Otherwise where will the money come from?
In private care homes, paying more means increasing fees which means a certain number will either no longer be able to afford private care so require NHS (the gods help them) care, or they will more quickly deplete their resources and have to be moved sooner than otherwise to NHS care. And that will just make what is already bad, worse.
Tory MP… is an oxymoron these days. No such animal.
So, spend four years at Uni and get 70 grand in debt, and get a job paying 33K, or go straight from kindergarten, sorry, school, with no debt, and get a job paying 33K. Hmmm…..