Polish workers plug health care gap

By Melissa Jackson
BBC News Online health staff

All the new recruits speak English

A shortage of care workers in the UK has prompted a charity to turn to Poland to recruit staff for its elderly care homes.

Since EU borders opened up in May to include another 10 countries, there have been enhanced opportunities for both residents of the new member states and British employers.

Friends of the Elderly turned to Poland when its UK recruitment campaign failed to attract the right calibre of people.

It was so successful that it now has 17 new care assistants - all English speaking - working across its homes in the south-east and plans to recruit there again in the future.

The charity's director of human resources John Gould said that in March 2004, they had 15 care assistant vacancies to fill across nine care homes.

An advert placed in a local paper in Woking attracted just nine responses and half of these people were not legally eligible to work in the UK.

All the respondents were very well qualified and some were over-qualified John Gould, Friends of the Elderly

A loss of skills due to the large-scale closure of many care homes (about 80,000 care beds have been lost since 1996) coupled with unskilled workers choosing work that is better paid, has made it difficult to fill posts.

Existing staff tend to be older, but when they leave, they are not being replaced.

Mr Gould said: "The pool of labour in these care homes has been lost for good. They have gone into other industries."

A few weeks before the EU expansion, the charity placed an advert in the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and received 170 responses.

"It was a dream come true," said Mr Gould.

Interviews took place over two days in early May at a Warsaw hotel.

Future managers

Mr Gould said: "All the respondents were very well qualified and some were over-qualified.

"We had psychologists applying.

"I know the people I have taken on will become managers within the care sector.

"They have the right kind of values and caring values, but also have leadership characteristics."

They have been through a two-day induction course to settle them in to their new roles.

I hope, as time passes, that I will have slightly better opportunities and be promoted one day Przemyslaw Olejnik, Polish care assistant

The charity pays them a minimum of £6 an hour, which is above the national minimum wage, and offers them with accommodation at £40 a week.

They will undergo an organised training programme and will be supervised until they gain the NVQ level two care qualification, which should take about six months.

"They don't need any English lessons, their English is excellent."

He singled out Poland because it is the largest of the new EU member states and they have the highest unemployment.

The Eastern European countries also have a strong culture of care - where young people look after older relatives.

Mr Gould said the Poles also have a strong affiliation with England and respect for our country and the British way of life.

Job satisfaction

One of the new carers, Przemyslaw Olejnik, 28, trained as a teacher in Poland, but was unemployed before he came to the UK.

He said: "I took my grandmother out quite often in Poland.

"This work can be hard, but very rewarding, especially when a resident responds and appreciates my help.

"So it gives me a lot of satisfaction.

"I hope, as time passes, that I will have slightly better opportunities and be promoted one day. I will do my best to make it happen."

Jayne Mannion, manager of Bernard Sunley nursing home in Woking, where Mr Olejnik is employed, had nothing but praise for the new members of staff.

She said: "They are motivated, they are enthusiastic and nothing is too much trouble and I think they have adapted really well to work in a care home environment and living in the UK."

Friends of the Elderly is so impressed with its new recruits it plans to return to Poland later this year.

He said: "I may not have to advertise. I have a lot of people on my books that I couldn't place from the recent interviews."

He thinks many other companies will follow suit.

In fact some already have. Bupa Care Homes recruited approximately 50 care assistants at a job fair in Poland in April and plans to target other accession countries in the future.