“Reading the room” is a vital skill in politics. It is that knack of understanding, just clicking with an atmosphere or individual and knowing how to make a spontaneous pitch or knowing when to tone it down. Kwasi Kwarteng, with almost endearing under statement said in a recent interview that it was a skill that his old boss Liz Truss did not have.
If you are instinctive about reading the room you can make a lot of money in business or even in politics, but in low paid work like care (£21,000 a year if you are over 21, less if you are under 21) it is an essential part of your role. Yesterday I visited a residential home I know well. You cannot miss the atmosphere when you go in the door. It is warm, friendly, giggly even, with in-jokes and gentle humour. The care staff (not a single one of them, incidentally, British born) have an uncanny knack of pre-empting small mishaps and instinctively knowing when a vulnerable resident is not quite themselves.
What is also striking, as someone who had to use the NHS a lot two years ago, is that my friends working in care seem to have retained this extra something, what Lord Darzi, in his report, calls “discretionary effort” in a way that seems largely lost in the Health Service.
As an inpatient in the last 2 years I have experienced things that would have resulted in disciplinary action against a careworker:
- Shouted at by a nurse when I tried to use the “wrong” toilet on the ward.
- Blanked and ignored to my face by a doctor when I politely complained to him that I had been waiting five and a half hours in the ward prepped for an operation.
- Subjected, under general anaesthetic, to an intimate procedure conducted by a surgeon without specific consent. (This matter was investigated by the police and is now with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman)
Not a single Lib Dem Voice reader will be surprised by this small list. All of you will have your own and have experienced worse.
Whatever you call it: “reading the room”, “discretionary effort”, “the milk of human kindness”. Please could we strive to get these things back in our health service? Please could we also not just talk about the crisis in social care but learn from the widespread good practice amongst our diverse social care staff?
Written in honour of Sini, Hasan and all the team
* Ruth Bright has been a councillor in Southwark and Parliamentary Candidate for Hampshire East
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3 Comments
Great piece Ruth, Natually, the focus and preoccupation is always with Service provision and the need for better trained staff with a ‘bedside manner’. Notwithstanding that, both the NHS and Social care providers need to get back to being good employers and respecting their staff. Outcomes for patients will follow. There is still far too many clinical staff on sick leave due to stress-related issues.
Thanks Michael, a common work pattern in care work is 40 hours with alternate weekends (and no increment for weekend working). Judging from your Sunday trading article perhaps we need to bring the two things together and write a piece about burn-out in social care.
There’s always an inner voice advising you if you listen and accept it.