Social Care Sector Has Yet to Learn the Lessons of Pandemic, says UNISON

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said that if ‘another pandemic were to happen tomorrow, the big worry is that social care would be in exactly the same position as before.’

Christina was giving evidence on behalf of the TUC regarding the impact of the pandemic on social care, the sector’s response during Covid, and the lessons to be learned.

During questioning, Christina said at the start of Covid social care had been regarded as an ‘afterthought’ by the government, with staff in some cases forced to make their own personal protective equipment (PPE).

When asked about reports of care workers resorting to wearing Marigold gloves in the absence of proper safety kit, she said: “It was shockingly bad. UNISON set up a Covid helpline and on the morning of the launch it received over 1,000 calls, many of them from care staff.

“Policy was made up by ministers as they went along with no proper centralised system in place for PPE distribution.”

In her evidence, Christina said that during the pandemic it was hard to find guidance online about how staff should use and dispose of safety kit. She said she’d raised the issue with a senior Health and Safety Executive official:

“I couldn’t find the guidance and I wasn’t a busy care worker. The official then looked and he couldn’t find anything either. When he did finally locate the guidance, the text was complete gobbledygook. I don’t know who it was aimed at, but it certainly wasn’t written for care workers.”

“FAQ documents or short videos about how to put PPE on and take it off would have been much better.”

Christina said staff working in domiciliary care were particularly affected by the lack of guidance around safety kit:

“The quality of the information going out was appalling. It felt like it was being made up on the hoof.”

“Care workers were being told they could use a mask for a whole day, but some were seeing as many 20 clients a day. When UNISON raised problems like these, the guidance would then change.”

The fact that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) stopped doing inspections during the pandemic also had a major impact, Christina added. It meant no one was going in to care homes to pick up on problems like managers locking safety kit in cupboards, for example.
“Inspections could have identified high levels of infection in particular care homes. Questions could have been asked, but none of this was happening because no one from the CQC was going in.”

A national care service would give the sector equal status with the NHS and ensure staff were properly trained to deal with a future pandemic, Christina said. “But if another pandemic were to happen tomorrow, social care would be in the same position as before.”

“Care workers with Covid were going in to work every day to deal with elderly people and those with learning disabilities. But there was no training on what was appropriate for each of those settings.”

The lack of sick pay, Christina told the inquiry, was another major failing exposed by the pandemic – and this has still not been resolved.

“When care workers fell ill or needed to isolate, they had no safety net, no money in the bank to tide them over. A lack of sick pay was a driver of infection in the pandemic. Care workers had no choice but to keep turning up to work. They couldn’t afford to stay at home.”

Christina did acknowledge that the current government has set up a workforce forum that’s now started meeting. She said she hoped the forum would make a difference.