In the avalanche of daily news there was an important snippet that might have passed you by.
It wasn’t camouflaged and it didn’t come from a whacky news source, or social media. Dare I say, it is the sort of news that we have become used to?
Some news is in the, ‘Wow, come and have a look at this’, category. This news has slipped into the ‘yeh’, category. Filed under, routine. Tagged as, ‘we know’.
I’m talking about the news, from the BBC; More than 40,000 nurses have walked away from the NHS in the past year - one in nine of the workforce.
I know, I know, I’ve been banging on about workforce, ad-nauseam.
I’ve been saying we have to recruit but that’s a long-term proposition. We can recruit from overseas but run the risk of falling foul of ethical recruitment, and…
…we could look after the people we’ve got, better.
There’re still Trusts that don’t have 24-7 fresh, hot-food available in warm and welcoming canteens. Presumably, their Boards are from the shoving-children-up-the-chimney, school of management.
There are half a dozen things we could do;
Get out from behind the desk, go and listen to people
Tell them; the short-cut to the best, safest, fastest, most economic services, is to flag up concerns, early… and show them you mean it
Trust people to self roster
Celebrate teamwork
Generate education and training opportunities
Create the time and space for good people to do great things
As well as, food-banks, kids clubs, clothes-banks, journey to work discounts and free car-parking…
… and
Sort out child care.
Let me start by saying; I know, Dads look after kids, too… I’m not ignoring that.
I want to get that off my chest simply because some of the best data, from the OECD, is expressed as; ‘gross and net costs of childcare, as percentage of median female earnings’.
Here on page 15, it appears we have the highest child care costs on the planet.
On the next graph it is expressed as ‘net costs for couples’, we’re still the highest.
For a single-parent nurse, on band 5, the cost might be as high as 25% of earnings.
As the OECD, very sensibly points out;
‘…accessible and affordable childcare makes it easier for parents to… work… causal links between childcare… and employment… are complex…
...a growing body of research suggests that providing families with access to affordable childcare can boost maternal employment (Browne and Neumann, 2017).
Why is childcare so bloomin’ expensive.
It needn’t be. Employers can provide workplace facillities that are tax exempt.
Given the size of most Trusts, it’s hard to believe they can’t, routinely, find room for a child care nursery. They key being, it would have to operate at hours that help shift workers. Most don’t.
The number one cost, however, is increasing regulation...
…including a national curriculum for the under-5s and the accompanying bureaucracy, including Ofsted inspections.
I’m not suggesting a free-for-all, but national curriculum, really? You be the judge.
Secondly, staff-child ratios. Staffing being, 80% of operating costs.
For children under two, there must be one member of staff for every three children.
For children aged two, the ratio is one member of staff for every four children.
The UK has some of the strictest rules when it comes to numbers of children-per-staff-member.
Sweden has no mandated ratios and is considerably cheaper at providing childcare, than us. Is Sweden a dangerous place for kid-care?
Dunno…
Third is property prices. Unlike many businesses, that have been able to move on-line… you can’t do child-care via Amazon. Fuel costs won’t help, either. And…
… here’s a thought;
The dependency ratio; the number of dependents aged zero to 14 and those over the age of 65... compared with the total population, aged 15 to 64, is going the wrong way.
In most of the EU, the ratio-indicator is in the mid-thirties. In the UK it’s 57…
...as a nation, we’re getting old. We need more youngsters and more kids.
We just have to figure out, where to put them, whilst we go to work, to pay for them.
>> I'm hearing - the number of NHSE whistleblowers tripled in 2021-22.
>> I'm hearing - Asda has written to all MPs to announce that all of their own in store cafes will be will be offering all over 60s hot soup, a roll and unlimited drinks for just £1 this November and December.
>> I'm hearing - such is the number of hospitals announcing they are under pressure and limiting or closing curtailing services, I've lost count. Follow @ShaunLintern
He regularly posts about it.
>> I'm hearing - Over the last year, the NHS has lost
328 GP partners, 242 salaried, locum and retainer GPs
There are now just 0.44 fully qualified GPs per 1,000 patients in England – down from 0.52 in 2015.
