Care home workers poor English

I was working as a SW in the field when care homes and home care were privatized - it was a nightmare. Instead of being able to pick up the phone to the person in charge of either service and chatting about any problems that might have arisen, it was all fragmented and we had to liaise with an assortment of private agencies with high staff turnovers. And with the LA homes and services we knew there was proper staff support, supervision and training - because we were often a part of providing all that.

Also - at the risk of being accused of racism - carers from abroad, apart from the importance of shared culture and a good command of English, have the disadvantage that sometimes they might be hard for a resident/patient to accept, particularly if they have dementia. I know that my late OH was completely terrified by some of his carers, as he thought they were Russian spies, because of their accents. It was difficult for me as these people were there to care for him but sometimes I finished up struggling to do things myself as he was too frightened to have them do his care.

My DH is in a care home. On one visit I had to ask 5 different carers for the comode for him. Three did not know what I meant and could not be bothered to look. Two just walked off and one eventually brought him a toilet riser!! None of them could speak much English.

Another day DH asked for a cup of tea and the carer brought a set of keys!!

Not only is the lack of English scary it should not be allowed when caring for the vulnerable and elderly.

No, it should not.

VioletSky

The problem is that care homes are run for profit

They should be a public service and not privatised

Staff should have more training and sometimes that training should involve learning English as a second language

Staff should also be paid a better wage

I agree. Some care home owners have become very rich, other groups are bought by private equity investors.

I've never understood why hospices should have to rely on charitable donations and fundraising too.

It's shameful that people with poor knowledge of English are employed to care for vulnerable patients. Language is heavily embedded in culture. When it comes to bodily functions we don't always call a spade a spade in this country and this can cause a lot of confusion. When I was a newcomer I had to go to the surgery on one occasion and I was asked to "spend a penny". I had no idea what it meant and I started looking in my purse!

my elders spoke of :
going to see aunty.
going to the houses of parliament.
going to take my seat.

also heard:
taking a turn,
turning aside.
stepping outside.
checking the plumbing.

it must be quite confusing for foreigners.

When I had a carer provided by Social Services for my late DH, his English was reasonable but his lack of training and knowledge of British culture was a big problem.
He did not know to run hot water for a wash or shave, did not know about using the sharps box, wearing gloves or how to use a toaster or microwave. I lived in a multi cultural area so would expect English as a second language, but was shocked at this. When I complained about his lack of training, I was told that some people are slower than others to learn the job.

How is this lack of basic English to be resolved and how is it to be funded ? Several years ago there was an ill-fated attempt by the government to address this problem.Colleges were given the task of providing some English input into care homes and restaurants etc ( no money was provided for equipment). I was given a local care home which was allowed 2 lessons per week! It didn’t work.Carers were often too busy to attend or were called away during the session and those who did attend were often tired after a 12 hour shift.This problem deserves to be taken seriously.

inculturation, or the lack of it, can be a problem, esp when dealing with elderly or vulnerable people.
not only careworkers, but ime district nurses often walk straight in, leaving wet/muddy footprints.
so many younger people never wipe their feet.

Primrose53

Tenko

Gosh there is some misconceptions here. And as it’s the daily fail I’m not surprised.
I have had experience of carers both in care homes and in the home via my fil and my mother .
They do speak and write English and write up notes , which I have been able to read as they leave the folder in the home , but they have heavy accents which make it harder for people to understand especially if hard of hearing . It’s the accents which are the problem not the lack of English .
CQC require staff to have extensive training and to provide proof if the home is inspected. All care homes and care agencies have to be investigated by CQC .

You win the prize! I wondered how long it would be before someone pointed out “it’s the daily fail”. How very original …… not! 😳

It doesn't matter who reported it, Tenko, it happened, it's a tragedy and an old lady in a supposedly caring environment died an undeserved, horrible death because of the inadequacy of the staff employed by the home. It should never have happened.

It has just been reported on the national ITV News too.

Just because you have some experience of good carers and a couple of good care homes does not mean there are no poor care homes with untrained staff whose language skills are inadequate for the job they are expected to do.

There are some excellent care homes but equally there are many which are not up to the standard we would expect and where we would want our loved ones to end their days. Or indeed ourselves.

also careworkers not knowing how to prepare basic staples like beans on toast, or even sandwiches.
i don't know what can be done about this.

If the government's proposed changes to work visas go ahead, lack of English won't be a problem. There just won't be any care workers!! I read somewhere that there's already a shortfall of about 165,000.

I guess some enterprising person could come up with some system of fully automated care. Food could be provided on conveyor belts. Care could be delivered by AI controlled robots, which could be programmed to speak English.

I would like to see people trained as Healthcare Assistants (or a similar title) paid a decent wage and if necessary helped with their command of English. Not years of training but an intensive few months with a qualification at the end and you only get to qualify if you can speak, write and understand English to an acceptable level.

A friend of mine went to live in Germany about 10 years ago and very quickly realised if she was to get a good job she would have to learn the language. There were no free courses, she had to fund herself but it paid off.

i guess, ideally, any novices should should shadow an experienced worker before being let loose solo.
but it's not an ideal world . . .

We shall have to see the effect of the government's announcement about carers from abroad no longer being allowed to bring in close family members
Whatever happens, carers should be paid properly and there should be a proper career progression. As I saw when DH was dying in a nursing home (funded by the NHS for end-of-life, no room in the hospice) caring is a skilled and demanding job which deserves proper status.
If that were to become the case, there would perhaps be enough people here who would wish to be carers, so that we should need fewer people from abroad.

Higher pay for carers would mean higher fees for care homes.
I don't know how that would be met

The government (and many of the public) are too concerned about inflation for care workers to be paid significantly more.

I'm seriously doubtful whether paying care workers more would in any case attract enough people with the right attributes to provide care.

My sister was in a nursing home when she was dying of a brain tumour. We found out that she was being denied her overnight medications when a certain staff nurse was on duty because the nurse couldn’t understand the instructions for administering them and couldn’t/wouldn’t ask anyone for help in understanding them.

growstuff

If the government's proposed changes to work visas go ahead, lack of English won't be a problem. There just won't be any care workers!! I read somewhere that there's already a shortfall of about 165,000.

I guess some enterprising person could come up with some system of fully automated care. Food could be provided on conveyor belts. Care could be delivered by AI controlled robots, which could be programmed to speak English.

It was reported that medical and healthcare staff would be exempt from the restrictions.

caring is a skilled and demanding job which deserves proper status 👏
and remuneration too.

Callistemon21

growstuff

If the government's proposed changes to work visas go ahead, lack of English won't be a problem. There just won't be any care workers!! I read somewhere that there's already a shortfall of about 165,000.

I guess some enterprising person could come up with some system of fully automated care. Food could be provided on conveyor belts. Care could be delivered by AI controlled robots, which could be programmed to speak English.

It was reported that medical and healthcare staff would be exempt from the restrictions.

But they won't be able to bring family, which is likely to make a big difference. Foreign care workers are likely to choose to work in another country.

Foreign care workers rely on being able to keep their jobs for their visas. So, if a foreign care worker loses his/her job (maybe because he/she complains about harsh working conditions), he/she will not be able to rely on the spouse's income unless it's over £38k(?). Any spouse won't be granted a visa unless he/she is eligible as an individual anyway.

Care workers will still have to pay the hefty NHS surcharge and won't have any recourse to public funds.

The government might want foreign care workers to come to the UK, but the working environment is likely to be so unattractive that many will go elsewhere. Almost all developed countries have a need for care workers.

SueDonim

My sister was in a nursing home when she was dying of a brain tumour. We found out that she was being denied her overnight medications when a certain staff nurse was on duty because the nurse couldn’t understand the instructions for administering them and couldn’t/wouldn’t ask anyone for help in understanding them.

That's appalling.

One of my sisters worked for a while as an NVQ assessor for care and healthcare workers. It is now a requirement that they can't be awarded an NVQ unless they have adequate language skills. I'm not sure how any staff nurse was appointed without those skills.

My sister told me that foreign care and healthcare workers tended to be more than adequately qualified for their roles, but language skills were a problem. People underestimate how much time and study is needed to reach functional fluency in any language. She also told me that literacy is a significant problem even for some native British workers, who are sometimes unable to write up a an accurate and comprehensible report.

I honestly can't see care workers ever being paid substantially more without a massive increase in costs. IMO the solution is to invest in the language skills of those who are already here.

With so many care homes privately owned, what is the remuneration of the employees to do with the government so long as it is at least the minimum wage?

Germanshepherdsmum

With so many care homes privately owned, what is the remuneration of the employees to do with the government so long as it is at least the minimum wage?

I agree.

I also think that more care homes should be taken back under council control, so the profit element is eliminated.

I've actually been struggling to understand the justifications for making the income requirements for work visas more stringent because I don't understand the logic that wages will increase. It just won't happen and as GSM points out, the government can't make it happen. It's flawed (non-existent) logic.

In all honestly, Growstuff, I thought it was an appalling place. I was shocked to the core on my first visit. It felt like warehousing for ‘incurables and dying’. It wasn’t my call as to where my sister was placed and I was assured by her family that that was the best of the bunch.

As she got sicker, it got far worse than missing medication, details of which I won’t put in a public forum. Thank god she was at least transferred to a hospice for her last few hours.