Respite Care Workers Need Better Care

In the UK, the national living rate is defined as £10.42/hour. However, approximately 73% of social care workers are making below that. Social care centers such as nursing homes and respite care homes depend very heavily on government funding for the capital required to maintain their operations and compensate workers. The representative body for the social care sector, Care England, has been very outspoken about this issue and has called out the government to provide more funding and a livable minimum wage for employees of the industry. In November of 2020, Martin Green, the Chief Executive of Care England, said “The way in which social care is funded makes it impossible for care providers to pay what our valued staff are truly worth” via The Guardian. In July of 2022, Care England is still seeking support. Via careengland.org, Martin Green explains how on the 14th of July many citizens gathered outside of medical centers to protest social care workers’ salaries, but “they should have been outside Downing Street.” It is evident the public is largely in favor of this long overdue change, and it is a matter of pressuring the government.

Through “good” times and through pandemics, social care workers have been on the front lines of one of the most evergreen and important services. Specifically, a key factor for families is always to be able to find a care home near me. Albany House in Wiltshire, Salisbury believes that it is the government’s duty to better fund the social care sector to help medical and social care compensate their employees fairly.