The government can no longer turn a blind eye to the enormity of
the social care crisis that is engulfing the vulnerable and elderly
in England, and the inadequate pay and conditions of the workers
that care for them.
Unite, Britain and Ireland’s largest union with 100,000 members in
the health service, was commenting on today’s (Monday 7 September)
report by the TUC which said that social care spending in England
was still £600 million lower than in 2010 when the Tories came to
power.
The TUC called for a new funding settlement, ministers to fill the
120,000 existing vacancies in the sector, the ending of zero-hours
contracts and all workers to be paid a minimum of £10 per hour.
Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “The
government and, society more generally, can no longer turn a blind
eye to the enormity of the social care crisis in England.
“Unite strongly supports the TUC report and we would like to see a
once-in-a-generation New Deal for social care that gives the
elderly, vulnerable and disabled the fully-resourced support they
need, and which also properly rewards and respects the contribution
of social care staff.
“This crisis has been coming down the track for several decades,
however, it was the pandemic that shone a very painful spotlight on
the situation in care homes that politicians have ignored for too
long.
“Throughout the pandemic our members in social care have contacted
us with heart-breaking experiences. Many have suffered in silence,
fearful of speaking out against their private sector employers.
“Many have put their lives at risk because they lacked the basic
PPE. Testing of these key workers was inadequate and many did not
have proper sick pay if and when they had to isolate.
“There can be no justification for continued underfunding and the
rampant commercialisation of the sector – how can you factor in
profit margins for someone’s health and care?
“Boris Johnson and his ministers need to act now and stop kicking
this issue into the long grass – they should swiftly
implement the TUC’s recommendations.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
New TUC report: The full report Fixing social care: better
quality services and jobs is here:
https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-09/SocialCareReport.pdf
