My gran (Jolley, nee Crundle) worked as a teenager in West Bromwich Workhouse: The Workhouse in West Bromwich, Stafford (workhouses.org.uk)
I knew her as an imposing figure – tall for our family – in contrast to the Cooke’s who were uniformly less than 5’4”. She could certainly be stern and brooked no nonsense, but there was a warmth about her. A wall embroidery read: ‘This is our home, and here you’ll find, in every room, a welcome kind’. So it was and we always felt safe.
I am sure she gave disciplined, loving care to her charges at the workhouse – Taking pride in what she was doing.
A recent article in the Guardian reports findings from a serendipitous excavation which has revealed findings telling of the quality of provision at St Pancreas Workhouse, which give the lie to the general expectation that all was dire in all workhouses – designed to be so grim that no one would want to be admitted, it being preferable to die in hunger, cold and poverty than to risk the degradation of ‘workhouse’. St Pancras: Excavation sheds new light on notorious workhouse - BBC News
One thing is the style and quality of buildings, but more important is the way that staff are recruited, trained and supported in their roles. We do not have workhouses any more, and there are precious few beds in the NHS which offer long-term care for those with multiple and severe illnesses and disability. These responsibilities have been largely sold out to the independent sector. It is almost forty years since I appeared in a Panorama programme which identified poor practices in some care homes. The media continues to delight in cheaply made secret investigations which demonstrate dreadful patterns of care and cruelty in some homes. Sensational - We are rarely treated to a balanced view of places where staff and families work well together for the benefit of residents: Good news is no news.
The evil is clearly with us, the general public, and our populist governments who will not pay a decent wage for good quality care. We then turn upon those who fill the posts: most are dedicated and caring, doing the work because they see it as a calling. But the posts are not popular and depend upon recruits from other countries, other cultures. The workforce is exploited, and the sector a battlefield of mixed ideologies: ‘Many care homes wouldn’t be here without foreign workers:’ fears over Tories’ plans to limit immigration | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian
All this is to our shame. There was much which was wrong in the workhouse system, but my gran and the St Pancreas excavation tell a story of aspirations to do things well for the most vulnerable.
Can we be big enough to do better? We do know what can be done. We need the resolve to do it.
Each week we post a blog from David Jolley where he shares his personal views on relevant subjects.
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