Carers across Liverpool are having to work as much as 70 hours a week on what they describe as “poverty pay” just to make ends meet and provide the level of support people require.
Workers on minimum wage have told the ECHO how they have “no family life” and are “pressured into working overtime” to ensure services are still able to run. Despite the long hours, the low pay means care workers remain “skint” at a time when cost of living intensifies and are now campaigning to see the introduction of the foundation living wage.
Nationally there are 165,000 vacancies within the sector, but this gap in staffing is having a profound effect on NHS hospitals across the country. In Merseyside alone, recent reports have detailed how patients are having to be treated on trolleys in corridors while the wait for available bed space goes on.
READ MORE: As corridors fill with patients, hundreds are unable to leave our crisis-hit hospitals
In busy A&E departments, people have also been seen lying on the floor on makeshift beds as they await treatment and potential space on a ward. But due to gaps in the social care sector, and the time it takes for officials to carry out assessments, many patients medically fit to be discharged remain in hospital beds.
Data from January 20, 2023 shows that 395 patients remained in Liverpool's main Hospitals - including The Royal, Aintree and Broadgreen - despite not meeting the criteria to stay. Eight patients were discharged by 5pm, with a further 13 discharged before midnight. 374 of those patients who did not meet the criteria to remain were not discharged and remained at the hospitals. Only 5% of patients eligible to be discharged left the facilities - the lowest rate of any trust in England.
A spokesperson for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside recently told the ECHO that "intensive and focused work is underway with health and care partners across Cheshire and Merseyside, including those in local Government, to ensure more people who are medically-fit to leave hospital are able to be discharged."
Many of those remaining in hospitals will require social care support when discharged, but the logjam is not being helped by the conditions workers are having to face in the care sector. Speaking at a Liverpool City Council meeting on January 24, Anne, a professional carer for the last 40 years, pleaded with elected officials to introduce the foundation living wage for carers working the city.
This would take hourly pay up to at least £10.90 per hour and is a campaign being backed by trade union Unison in the hope it will help the sector bridge the gap in retaining and recruiting staff. Currently Wirral Council is the only authority in Merseyside where carers are paid the foundation living wage.
Speaking to the full council chamber, Anne, who only wanted to be referred to by her first name, said Liverpool could "lead the way" by committing to better rates of pay, pleading: “Please do everything in your power so we don’t spend another year on poverty pay.”
At the meeting Anne was supported by fellow care professional Joseph Mills, 23, who has been working as a homeless support worker for the last 10 months. He said the current conditions in other parts of the sector means the challenge to recruit and retain staff is increasingly difficult, with many considering a way out of the profession if things do not change. He added that some staff are having to work between 60 and 70 hours a week in parts of the sector.
Detailing some of the conditions that carers currently face, a Liverpool-based carer who handles everything from personal care, shopping and medication, told the ECHO: “It’s a 24/7 job. Work can start at 8am and then last for 13 or 14 hour shifts. You’re working with these people day in, day out, so you don’t want to leave them. You end up working past when you’re meant to, working on days off. There’s no break on the shifts - 12 hours is 12 hours.
They added: “There is a pressure to work overtime, so you rarely consider what to do in time for yourself. My grandkids always tell me they’re never able to see me. Staff are often covering shifts for those with younger children, just so they can spend some proper time together. When I started out as a carer, I felt it was a career, but it isn’t a career any more. I’ve become disillusioned with the system.”
The reality is similar for Dave, 45, who has been a carer in Liverpool for the last 15 years. The care professional, who only wanted to give his first name, told the ECHO he started to notice a downturn in the sector around 10 years ago when austerity measures were introduced.
Like other workers, he said that the profession runs on overtime work with “pressure” to pick up more hours. If one person is off sick, Dave added, the daily workload swells dramatically with little chance of finding a replacement to cover, with colleagues also having to take time off due to the intensity of the workload.
He told the ECHO: “Morale among workers is low. The people we support have more money than we have. When working loads of overtime and you're still skint, people stop. It’s hard to keep them in the job. The challenges are bad but you get attached to the people you support. In many ways it’s good will that keeps them in there.”
Responding to calls for the Foundation Living Wage in Liverpool, Deputy Mayor Cllr Frazer Lake said the campaign was roundly supported. But finding the money to commit to it could not yet be promised in the face of £73 million in budget cuts within the council.
He told the meeting that “we should not be needing to have this conversation” and that it is a “political priority” that carers “should be paid properly", adding: “[The campaign is] pushing on an open door, but that additional money will be in the context of the finances of setting a balanced budget.”
Cllr Lake, who is the cabinet member for health and social care, said he is “committed to look at this further in the future.”
Commenting on the campaign, Dan Smith, said: “Our social care system is in crisis. The workforce is shrinking despite increasing demand and there are over 165,000 vacancies within the sector. At the same time, hundreds of hospital discharges are delayed each day because of the lack of local social care provision.
"Thousands of care workers are leaving the sector because of poverty pay which is having a devastating impact on our communities. Care workers went above and beyond during the pandemic to care for our loved ones, but they’ve now been hit by a brutal cost-of-living crisis. While frontline staff are on minimum wage, private profits and director-level pay within the sector continue to sky-rocket.
"The good news is that local authorities commissioning social care have the ability to make a difference. 9 out of 10 councils in Greater Manchester have committed to paying care workers at least the Foundation Living Wage of at least £10.90 per hour. Unfortunately, in the Liverpool City Region, only Wirral Council pay care workers the Foundation Living Wage.
"Care workers across Merseyside are coming together in UNISON to demand reward and recognition for the work they do. We call on all councils in Merseyside – Liverpool, Halton, Knowsley, Sefton and St Helens – to follow the example of other councils across the region and use the current budget and fee setting process to boost care worker wages and pay at least the Foundation Living Wage."
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