Thursday | February 23, 2006

Why are there no New Grad jobs in the UK?

I would like to really understand why there are no new grad jobs available in the UK right now. It seems ridiculous and the CSP appear to be doing very little about it. Have they missed the real cause?

Heres a quote:

"Daily Mail Health News - 00:24am 28th November 2005

Millions of pounds of taxpayers money is being wasted as newly trained physiotherapists are forced to find work in shops because they cannot find NHS jobs, it is claimed.

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) said that six months after completing their degrees, 53% of physiotherapy graduates in the UK were still seeking their first NHS junior job.

A survey of 1,523 graduates found that 805 have still not secured their first post in physiotherapy."

My initial thought on this issue was to go back to my understanding about how new grad jobs are created. This is usually because of the steady movement on of more senior staff into other jobs and the private arena. e.g. When I graduated the new grads the year ahead of me mostly left after their year and went private. Perhaps 2-3 of 10 stayed on as other more senior staff left to vacate positions. This happened year-in, year-out and so there was a steady availability of positions without the need to actually increase staffing budgets.

No here's the problem no one seems to be addressing. BUPA (UK private insurer) have in the last 12 months made it mandatory that in order to receive compensation for Physio treatment in the private practice that physio must have at least 5 years post-grad experience! Interestingly this is not a requirement for their own BUPA Physio practices!

What does that mean, we as private practitioners will not employ anyone with less than 5 years experience. It simply is not good for business and can in fact hurt a business to do so. So what's the carry-on effect? No jobs for NHS workers wanting to leave who have less than 5 years experience. Therefore no one leaving, no new grad positions.

I really  feel that this is a major issue being completely over-looked and it aggravates me daily!

Posted by PhysioBob at 12:43:38 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |
Comments
1 - I qualified in July 2004 with a degree in Physio from the University of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, I thought that being funded atleast 100 punds a year by the NHS and being trained by their staff during 7 months of clinical placements, that I would be gauranteed a job at the end of the day. But then came the interviews... 100 people going for 2 jobs etc, the competition was HUGE! and not being as confident as i should be in interviews, I didn't feel i stood a chance! Some places were even interviewing 100 people just to turn around and say that no one would be getting a job because they had no funding that year.... Isn't that criminal? what a waste of everyone's time. so by the time i qualified i still had no physio job, so I took a job as a carer for people with LD and chllenging behaviour. I was attacked everyday for 6 months in a job i could have taken straight from school at the age of 16 with no qualifications. Eventually i was forced after 9 months of still not having a physio job to write to every single trust in the country enquiring about all positions. After scraping the very bottom of the barrell, I finally got a physio job in what is arguably the worst trust for junior therapists in the country... the levels of support are terrible further training opportunities are dreadful, funding is none-existent.. but what choice do i have?
..... And the cause of all this?? Maybe it's the fact they increased the intake at universities across the country by 10-20 students the year i began training, without increasing availability of jobs? And as you say, why are the CSP not doing more to solve this crisis? It's criminal. (Comment this)

Written by: S. Paterson at 2006/04/24 - 15:43:04
2 - I agree with you entirely. The CSP and the HPC need to intervene in this as they are jointly responsible for the registration and therefore demand that is out there for PT in this country.

I would say that it is not really the NHS at fault here. They are a symptom. The insurance companies are the big issue. BUPA now only permit reimbursement for treatments being delivered by a physio with over 5 years post grad experience.

What does that mean? Well, it means no private practitioner will employ any physio with less than 5 years experience and BUPA registration (another issue in itself). So that means the regular exodus from the HS into the provate sector between 2-4 years post grad is not happening because no one will employ them. This means less openings in the NHS for new grads. it seems pretty simple to me and why the CSP are not acknowledging it is beyond me!!!! (Comment this)

Written by: PhysioBob at 2006/04/25 - 09:47:37
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