Bexley councillor Chris Taylor
Cabinet member for Adult Services
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28 September 2012
9 November 2012
7 March 2013
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26 April 2013
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24 July 2013
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10 September 2013
15 February 2014
Twice I have heard Bexley councillor Chris Taylor, Cabinet
member for Adult Services, say that the problems with care services in Bexley are
not his concern because the services are contracted out. So little does he care
that he has even extended the contracts of companies providing inadequate services
paying no regard to the consequences. I think it is time that some of the consequences
became better known.
Having lived in the same street for 26 years I have seen many neighbours in the general
vicinity come and go. Over the past year or so I have discovered that several ladies,
young and not so young, are working as care workers for Bexley and other councils. From
them I have learned a little of how the system works.
In many ways the public services respond well. The NHS seems to provide an inexhaustible
supply of expensive equipment to aid care workers and their unfortunate clients, however
it can be complex electronic and mechanical stuff that requires skilled human intervention;
and that is where things are far from satisfactory. Bexley council’s penny pinching is
making a misery of too many lives, and I don’t just mean the disabled and the demented.
Bexley has handed its care services to agencies and as it freely admits it pays
them as little as possible; less than any neighbouring borough. The result is
inevitable, when things get tough, Bexley residents go to the back of the queue.
The basic problem is that the care workers get paid just one penny an hour above the
statutory minimum wage rate as if caring for the elderly and the disabled is a job
on a par with washing dishes in a fast food outlet. If only they were treated that well.
Care workers in Bexley are not being paid for the time or the expense involved
in getting from one client to the next. No relief from Bexley’s punitive parking
regime either. The care workers I have encountered are pleasant well meaning
people but they simply cannot afford to do their job in
the way that councillor Chris Taylor might imagine they do.
When the care workers arrive at a client’s home they ‘clock in’ via their client’s
land line phone because it would be too easy to cheat if they were allowed to use
their mobile phones. They similarly clock out when they leave. Sometimes they have
to pop out during a session to pick up their children from school. Child minder
fees and the minimum wage is not a compatible combination. Chris Taylor may lead a
comfortable life with his £22,500 councillor allowance for doing not a lot,
but the people whose noses he keeps tightly pressed against the grindstone do not.
A typical morning shift designed to meet three clients’ requirements might mean
going to Sidcup for an hour, then Erith for two and back to Welling for an hour with
thirty minutes allowed in between for negotiating Bexley’s congested roads. It’s barely
practical and the itinerary does not make for efficient use of fuel. For those on minimum
wage and footing their employer’s transport costs out of their own pockets the temptation
to rejig the schedule is overwhelming. In this example going to Erith first and Sidcup
last would make a lot of sense for someone living in the north of the borough - and
those I know of all do. The petrol consumption and time wasted would be much reduced but the
clients woken up early or left waiting are hugely inconvenienced.
Having seen a care worker sent from Erith to Dartford for a 45 minute session and then
ordered back to Belvedere for £4.50 half of which would have gone in petrol, I’m
not sure that they should be criticised.
Attempts to claw a meagre living from such work by adjusting the schedule turns
a disabled or demented client’s day into a stress filled wait for the next knock
on the door. The best that can be hoped for is that visits are made within a four hour window
and that the lunchtime visitor won’t clash with the morning one. Any semblance
of normal life is impossible, no one knows when teatime or bedtime is going to be.
Sometimes even the disabled need to get out of the house. How do you schedule
that when you have no real idea of when the next care worker will come? The
agency can be advised “I’d like to be out until 3:30, please don’t send the 4 p.m
visitor early” but they come an hour early and go away leaving a bill for their own
failure to turn up on time. Bexley council pays.
The inevitable corner cutting imposes a cost on clients, of inconvenience if nothing else.
Rushed care workers are striving to be ‘caring’ but the conditions imposed by Bexley council
contrive to hinder their best efforts - and do not give them a living wage. Her Majesty’s
Revenue and Customs has confirmed that what Bexley has condoned contravenes the minimum wage regulations.
Being a care worker is a responsible job demanding certain skills and human qualities but
Bexley council has lost sight of practical realities. It is a disgrace and so is the attitude of Bexley
councillor Chris Taylor.
February 2014