Petition to improve pay for Support Workers and Carers. (UK)

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My name is Chris, I am currently a support worker for Lifeways Care. Something I notice everyday and something that has become a very apparent and pressing issue across the entire care sector, is that none of us as carers are paid anywhere near a realistic wage, unless we have come from the NHS or past contracted care.

Currently, most jobs in the care sector pay between £7.20-9.00 an hour, occasionally some jobs pay more than this, agency pays much more but honestly, I rarely include agency in my sphere of thought, often they are some of the most uncaring and abusive individuals I have come across, working only for profit.

A thing that has struck me with my own company, is that staff and myself work insane hours and are often put in an emotional situation where our own caring nature gets the better of us and companies take advantage of this.

The government cut 20% from the social welfare bill during this great time of "austerity" this has had a direct and continual result of practically destroying the social care sector. Putting thousands of members of staff and thousands of clients in a position where they often have nothing and are working for practically nothing.

I feel this must change. In order to attract a quality of care I myself would feel comfortable entering into in my old age. Right now, I worry that when I get old, the care sector will simply dump on me the same negativity it seems to be dumping on it's clients right now.

As a result, I have started a petition on the .gov website to begin fighting to change this. Ideally, I would push for an entire reform of the care sector. Right now, their are no prospects for carers, no career path, no promotion. The government raised the minimum wage by 50p and as a response, my company cut overtime, cut sunday hours, cut bank holiday hours and is even now making the staff pay for tea and coffee out of their own pockets. I am tired of it, sick and tired. I want change and change comes through the vox populi.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166272

Those of you who would join me in making this change, my heart, compassion and love goes out to you in the most spectacular of ways. Carers and Support Workers are the backbone of this country, being the end result for the majority of us when we enter old age or suffer from disability.

I want a quality of care that this country can be proud of and a quality of care that truly provides and changes peoples lives. Support workers and carers should not be put under the pressure that is excised on them right now, it's too much, something is about to give and break in a huge way.

So again, please join me in changing this. We must fight for a better social sector! We are all part of it.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166272

I would also direct people to this 2015 article in the guardian that really sums up everything I feel about the social care sector right now.

https://www.theguardian.com/social-care ... conditions

You had overtime, sunday hours and bank holiday hours!? I never got anything like that.

More generally, yeah social care is a waiting disaster. Staff are underpaid, overworked and under-supported. And as the companies become more underfunded and understaffed, it puts pressure on remaining staff. There simply aren't enough people to safely fill the jobs right now, and that's going to get worse. I'm glad I'm leaving the sector now, it drove me to anxiety attacks.

Hi Lion, I signed your petition but was dismayed to see I was the 16th signature.

I work as a support worker for autistic adults and although I love my job, the salary wouldn’t sustain me if I wasn’t married to someone who is earning considerably more.

I’m contracted to do 35 hours a week and though I usually do more, I can afford to put my foot down when they keep on piling the hours on. Other support workers who need the money are working 60-70 hours some weeks. When we have been short staffed I’ve done 32 hour shifts but I know people who regularly do 32 hour shifts just to get the extra money.

I don’t blame the management. They sit between a rock and a hard place and have enormous pressures put on them but their staff are tired, have no home life, live on the bread line and yet work with such dedication and enthusiasm that they’d put many other places to shame. All they want is a living wage and by god do they deserve it.

would have signed, but I don't live in the UK.

The same goes for me.