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A 17-year-old business administrator who is embarking on her level 3 apprentice is urging young people to think about a career in the care sector.
Lauren Rawson from Sutton in Ashfield attended Quarrydale School in Sutton and included a health and social care GCSE as one of her subjects.
After she left school, she wanted to further her studies in mental health and wellbeing but after a chance encounter with a colleague from Respectful Care Nottingham South, Ms Rawson decided to try social care and “see what it is all about.”
Ms Rawson told homecare.co.uk said: “I did my GCSE in health and social care. I always took an interest in it. It was one of my favourite subjects whilst I was in school.
“When I left, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I was going to go along with studying mental health but I knew [a friend who] worked in care so I just thought I would try it and see what it is all about.
“I started my apprenticeship and stayed here ever since. I have been loving it ever since I started.”
Ms Rawson wants to see other people joining the care sector and to encourage them, she said: “It’s very rewarding and every day you feel good about yourself. It’s a very nice environment where you have everyone around you where we all get along. It’s a great career.
“It’s something to have a go at whilst being paid.
“I hear a lot of people say ‘oh care, its quite a scary job’ but you don’t really need to worry about that because you get the training provided for you and you get so much support, it’s all there for you. You don’t need to worry.”
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The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has urged the government to remove all charges to immigration visas and set a minimum wage of £10.50 an hour for care workers in England to help alleviate the impact of workforce challenges.
The MAC report, which briefs ministers on immigration policy has put forward 19 recommendations, which it says will alleviate the challenges facing the social care sector, including recruitment and retention.
The National Care Forum (NCF) the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) and the Homecare Association have welcomed the report and said this “reiterates some very important issues” which includes issues of underfunding and how this continues to “exacerbate challenges to providers”, high staff vacancy and turnover rates and the “impact of low pay and the care workforce challenges”.
‘We know the true value of care work is much more’
Vic Rayner, chief executive of the NCF and member of the social care expert advisory for the MAC said: “While a focus on the minimum pay for care workers in this report is a helpful contribution to this issue, the NCF has consistently called for an independent pay review for social care, which involves employers, commissioners, and employee representatives with a view to implementing a new career-based pay and reward structure which is comparable with the NHS and equivalent sectors and fully-funded by central government.”
The VODG is also urging the government to “embrace” the committee’s recommendations to fully fund a rate of social care pay above the National Living Wage.
Dr Rhidian Hughes, chief executive of VODG said: “At present, charities are prevented from improving pay rates because funding passed down by central government to local authorities falls woefully insufficient.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has announced that all care home visitors, apart from those giving personal care, will no longer have to test for Covid and tests will continue to be free for staff and residents, according to the government’s ‘Living with Covid’ guidance.
Free testing for the public ended on 1 April but all those living and working in ‘high risk settings’ such as care home, hospices and home care organisations will still receive free lateral flow testing.
Free testing needed for visitors ‘to safely visit’ residents
The majority of visitors to adult social care settings including care homes will not be required to take a test according to the new guidance.
Only the ‘small number of care home visitors who provide personal care’, known as essential caregivers, still need to test. They will be able to get free tests but will not need to test more than twice a week.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said the government has “forgotten” that visitors to care homes need testing so they can “safely visit their relatives”.
He said: “This must be funded by the government.”
A high street chemist has revealed it will charge £17 for a pack of four lateral flow tests.
Read the full story at homecare.co.uk
Following predictions the NHS would be hit by a loss of over 70,000 frontline staff and a fifth of the home care workforce would quit if the mandate was introduced in April, Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced yesterday evening to the House of Commons that the government is removing the legal requirement for all health and social care staff in England to be double jabbed against COVID-19.
The mandate for care home staff to have the jab came into force on 11 November and led to thousands of care workers being sacked.
Mr Javid said: “While vaccination remains our very best line of defence against COVID-19, I believe it is no longer proportionate to require Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment through statute.
“So, Madam Deputy Speaker, today I am announcing that we will launch a consultation on ending Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment in health and all social care settings.
“I have always been clear that our rules must remain proportionate and balanced – and of course, should we see another dramatic change in the virus, it would be responsible to review this policy again.”
Mr Javid explained that the vaccine mandate was put in place because of the severity of the Delta variant, but now with the Omicron variant being the dominant variant and less severe plus the success of the vaccine rollout, he says it is only right the policy was reviewed.
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