Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Home pays me more to clean than to care
Crisis as workers flee sector in droves
Unison, half were considering leaving the system, 70% driven by low pay, with over half adding they did not have enough time to deliver care.
One in five admitted being too rushed to take people to the toilet and 28% do not have enough time to bathe or shower those they are caring for.
Two in five said they had no time to comfort a resident in distress.
It was a picture painfully reflected in BBC Sunday night drama Care, starring Sheridan Smith and Alison Steadman, showing one care resident forced to urinate in a corridor.
Squeezed by Tory cuts, local authorities reduced spending per adult on social care by around 9% between 2009-10 and 2017-18, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The Local Government Association estimates social care faces a funding gap of £4.3billion by 2020 and says overall councils will have faced a 77% decrease in funding between 2015/16 and next year.
According to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Government has cut £7billion from social care budgets in England since 2010. Matthew Egan, of Unison, said the squeeze means eligibility criteria has risen, resulting in those in care having more demanding needs.
There are 110,000 vacant care worker posts in England.
Mr Egan said: “Care workers feel looked down upon. They feel they are doing the job a district nurse would have done 10 years ago.”