Care home staff ‘abandoned and betrayed’ after Covid

Care workers have been “abandoned and betrayed” after Covid and warn conditions in private homes are worse now than during lockdown.

 A survey by GMB Scotland reveals conditions for staff and residents in private care are the same or worse than during the pandemic despite promises of change.

The poll of 800 workers in care homes reveals 87% believe operators are more interested in making money than paying staff fairly and 71% say profits come before the care of elderly residents.

Almost 90% say their wages are no better now than during Covid despite promised improvements and workers will demonstrate at Holyrood on Thursday to call for fair wages, sick pay and better working conditions.

Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, said they have every right to feel betrayed.

She said: “The staff and residents in private care homes were abandoned during the pandemic and have been betrayed ever since.

“Their commitment and life-saving care saved countless lives in spite of decisions taken by politicians and operators which exposed them to grave but unnecessary risk.

“They deserved far better than and were promised that, when Covid was over, the value of the care they provide would be properly recognized and fairly rewarded.

“That promise has been proved worthless and warm words do not pay a single bill.”

The union said care staff in the private sector were assured their work would be properly recognized after the pandemic when people applauded NHS and social care staff in the street during lockdown.

During the pandemic, care home staff reported Personal Protection Equipment was scarce, ill-fitting or out of date despite ministers’ agreeing to transfer Covid patients from hospitals into homes.

On the fifth anniversary of lockdown, the survey of 800 GMB members in private care reveals that pay, conditions and levels of care have not improved in most homes.

The poll shows 62% of care staff believe working conditions have not improved since lockdown; 82% said staffing levels are no better; and 86% said their wages are no better now than then.

More than half (52%) said their homes have not improved health and safety procedures since the pandemic.

Nine out of ten (87%) say owners are more interested in profit than giving staff fair pay and decent conditions.

The survey has been released as GMB Scotland members in social care prepare to rally at the Scottish Parliament to mark five years since Covid and years more of broken promises of fair pay.

Staff in private social care will demonstrate at Holyrood to call for action on the fifth anniversary of lockdown when their crucial frontline work in residential homes was hailed for saving countless lives.

Care workers, backed by colleagues from the public sector, will say enough is enough at the rally at Holyrood on 27 March at 11am and call for fair pay, sick pay and better terms and conditions across the care sector.

Last year, GMB and other care unions urged the return of £38 million of funding ringfenced social care workers but secretly cut from Scottish Government budge while the progress towards a promised £15 an hour minimum wage has been glacial.

Change promised after Covid has not materialised and the union, one of the biggest in the public sector, says the rally at the parliament will highlight deplorable broken promises and lack of support.

 

Care workers were abandoned in lockdown and betrayed ever since

By Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary

The headlines come at us fast these days as news alerts, one more outlandish than the last, ping into our phones.

Sometimes, we even get two for one, like the fifth anniversary of Covid earlier this month arriving just as Nicola Sturgeon announced her decision to stand down as an MSP.

Pondering the significance, many pundits agreed the former first minister’s leadership during the pandemic was possibly the high watermark of her Holyrood career.  Certainly, compared to her counterpart down south, Sturgeon certainly seemed impressive but next to Boris Johnson the Chuckle Brothers would have looked Churchillian.

The airy but persistent notion that we somehow responded better to Covid than other countries – cough, England - is something else again though and entirely for the birds.

The Scottish Government might have ringed a few changes – remember FACTS? Anyone? – but was, in every way that mattered, in lockstep with Westminster.

Of course, ministers were calculating unimaginable risks and shouldering unprecedented responsibilities but, that said, the legacy of Covid – for our young people, for our economy – is vast, still unfolding, possibly permanent and needs assessed with the clear eyes of hindsight.

Other policies were available and so were experts voicing concern about the scale and speed of UK lockdowns in real time without the benefit of a rearview mirror.

Sweden, famously, did things differently. Comparative statistics can be made to dance and sing but schools and workplaces stayed open there and excess deaths were no higher than here. Meanwhile, after establishing a national commission in 2020 to review the country’s response, a final report was published two years later.   

Perhaps, if we’re lucky, our Covid inquiries might be concluded in another five years but only a fool would bet on it or expect accountability or change.  The repeated promise that lessons will be learned is as hollow as the self-congratulatory hubris suggesting Scotland did things better.

We did not get everything wrong but mistakes were made and one, above all, retains the power to shock. Revealed by this paper, the decision to ship Covid patients out of hospitals and into care homes where unwitting staff were wearing bin bags for want of personal protection equipment was, as one owner claimed, “like putting a match to tinder”.

It was only the most dismaying example of how our care homes, staff and residents, were thrown to the wolves.

The commitment and care offered by staff in those homes would eventually prompt promises that, after Covid was over, they would be properly recognised and fairly rewarded. If only all those warm words paid a single bill.

Last year, unions urged the return of £38 million of funding ringfenced for social care but secretly cut from Scottish Government budgets while progress towards the promised £15 an hour minimum wage makes glaciers look a little hasty.

These committed workers were abandoned five years ago and have been betrayed ever since. After all the big but empty talk of a new National Care Service, they continue to endure low pay, no sick pay, and little security. It is an abject disgrace.

In lockdown, we clapped and banged our pots to salute NHS and care workers. It is lamentable that, on Thursday morning at Holyrood, our members in private social care will bang the pots again, forced to demonstrate to get the attention of politicians who have spent five years turning the other way.

Frontline but low-paid workers, social care staff included, kept this country on its feet during Covid and deserve respect and recognition not mumbled thanks and more excuses.

If we have learned anything from Covid, we should have learned that.

This column first appeared in The Sunday Post

ENDS