Did anyone notice that in all the retoric about public services, not one of the polititians acknowldged that public services are more than teachers and nurses. There is outrage at "dirty" hospitals and yet do they think that the problem might be that they have auctioned cleaning hospitals off to private firms who pay their staff so little that most of them have to claim some type of mean tested benefit just to keep food on the table. There is public outcry at children who are not protected - but no understanding that if you don't fund the service properly, pay them enough and sufficient staff you end up with a few demoralised social workers desperately trying to carry an unworkable caseload - they are being set up to fail - and when they do ... the polititian's answer is to scapegoat the individual. The quality of residential care depends upon the staff - in general supermarket checkout operators get paid more than residental staff and that's before they "transfer us to the private sector". In the private sector, terms and conditions are even worse. TUPE is little protection as it only lasts as long as you are in that exact post, you cannot develop your career without accepting a change to the new firms terms and conditions. So you are effectively trapped & with a downward pressure on your terms and conditions as any new staff do not have to be paid at the same rates. And since the new pay is even less than yours it does not tend to attract high quality professional staff so your job gets even harder.
Sorry for the rant - but polititians annoy me
Jude