Covid in Scotland: Teachers asked to work in Glasgow care homes as staff hit by Omicron

Perhaps. I am trying to think through why I reacted against that suggestion. I usually had a number of nurses on my team, and they had skills which I didn't possess and I ansolutely used those skills to provide higher quality care for the children with complex needs. I wonder if I feel care would become a 'poor corner' of the NHS and my experience is that when organisations try to do everything their core offer often suffers.

Galaxy

Yes it's better than nothing but actually the attitude that anyone can do it is partly why we are in this position in the first place. Caring for the elderly and those with disabilities is a skill that actually not that many people possess. I have managed care services for a long time, I would be an absolutely terrible teacher and I am sure many teachers would be terrible carers. We should have never let the situation get to this. Many of us who work in care or who receive care have been talking about this for a long time.

Don't put yourself down Galaxy in terms of helping in a school. I'm sure you could put up exciting board displays, walk round the playground chatting to the kids, pour out the drinks, mix up the paints, do photocopying, etc! All valuable stuff to relieve the class teachers.
In care homes similarly they need precisely people to muck in and do jobs not necessarily requiring skills.

I have managed care homes all my life Josianne but in the last few years I have moved into a specialist job in schools ( not teaching) it's why I know the skills and actually the culture are worlds apart.

And actually in my experience I would rather have two trained care staff than five people who could help with the dishes. Particularly for children with disabilities more bodies around the place is not at all helpful.

The NHS has recruitment difficulties at Healthcare Support worker level as well, so if the care sector did become part of the NHS it wouldn’t resolve the manpower shortages.

That is true galaxy re amount of people. I do think in my daughters house though they would be grateful of a cleaner that worked for several hours a week instead of expecting the staff to support my very unwilling daughter to do it!

Yes that's a fair point we had a trained cook and a cleaner back in the day. But we were very careful even about having volunteers because it was to be brutal another person the children had to cope with in their own home.

The private care homes here were the ones that had the highest cases of covid way back at the start.One local woman went to the media when she wasn't "allowed" to use PPE unless the manager actually said so,this "manager" kept it locked up .It has since been taken back into public ownership as has the home on Skye where the owner/manager was bringing staff in from areas of England although it wasn't allowed at that time .
In ,y opinion care of the elderly should not be privatised ,simply because shareholders profits become more important than the welfare of the elderly who pay the bloomin wages .

Galaxy

I have managed care homes all my life Josianne but in the last few years I have moved into a specialist job in schools ( not teaching) it's why I know the skills and actually the culture are worlds apart.

I'm glad somebody understands what I was going on about.