I would like to express serious concerns from the adult social care sector about the current climate in which we find ourselves operating. As members of the Care Workers Union (CWU), we are the voice of workers and are at the frontline of the sector; we see and experience the pressures faced by heroic care staff who simply want the best for their patients.

We also provide an essential service and work very hard for wages at the lower end of the pay scale. Our exposure to the Virus in the early days of the pandemic inevitably took a heavy toll on our health, resulting in many of us leaving the profession and in many deaths.

While we note the announcement of the government’s plan for health and social care funding and reform, the Health & Social Care Levy does nothing to resolve the existing workforce crisis that we are experiencing now.