Why don’t we value the people who care for a living?

I watched last night’s Panorama. Like most people who watched, I was horrified – but sadly I wasn’t surprised. For some time, I’ve expected that private residential care would be the next big scandal waiting to happen in the UK.

I’m a carer. At the moment I’m caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease but before that I worked in a number of care homes, looking after people of all ages who have mental health issues and severe learning difficulties.

It’s not an easy job. Some of the people you look after can be frustrating and do things that just don’t make sense to the rest of us. Sometimes they lash out because they don’t know how to deal with what’s happening or in the case of people with dementia, just don’t know who you are and why they’re there.

My worst experience as a carer was as an 18 year old. I walked in to find one of our residents had died during the night. I’d never seen a dead body before. I’d been on the job for 2 months.

When you think about the job, what it entails and that you’re looking after someone’s parent, grandparent or child, it quite frankly beggars belief that we don’t value the people who care for a living.

I worked for a large for-profit company but was paid 3p above the minimum wage. There were usually two staff on call for 15 residents. When we were on call we were paid £25 for a full 8-hour shift on the basis that we could sleep if we wanted to, so it really wasn’t work – they insisted we weren’t entitled to even the minimum wage. It didn’t matter that I’d be up 5 or 6 times per night with residents who couldn’t sleep or fancied having a rummage through the bins for no apparent reason, or that I was spending 8 hours away from my family.

We had no break room but were not allowed to leave site for breaks. If we did, there was no cover – we couldn’t leave a single person with 15 residents.

When I wanted to bring in my union, I was told they weren’t recognised and they weren’t allowed in. Employment law was flouted.

Any training we were given was unaccredited and without any quality control. I only managed to get on a First Aid course after three years with the same employer. Until then, I was responsible for the care of 15 people with no First Aid training at all.

Unsurprisingly, staff turnover was high. Some people were there because the Job Centre told them they had to be, others were agency staff who didn’t know one resident from the next and wouldn’t stay long enough to get to learn.

Care for the elderly – and others who need it – isn’t something that will go away. With an ageing population, it will become even more of an issue.

Labour has a once in a generation opportunity. A National Care Service that integrates health and care would be transformative but only if we do it right. Let’s do the job properly:

A genuinely National Care Service: when funding is limited and profit is a motive, something has to give. It’s not usually the profit margin, so it can only be quality of service, or staff pay, terms and conditions – or most likely, both.

Regulation and professional standards: let’s put in place a national framework for carers that includes high quality training, minimum qualifications and enforceable standards of care.

Get over the cost: quality care is not cheap. We’re going to have to spend some money on it – but think about Panorama last night, would you be happy with that care for your Mam or Dad?

I wouldn’t. Let’s do something about it.

Michelle Collins is a GMB member, a Wakefield councillor and sits on Young Labour’s national committee.