Care workers should not have to strike to be taken seriously by the government

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

’Support workers are skilled professionals with a significant range of responsibilities’ (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The same heroes for whom the nation clapped in 2020, and who have continued to go above and beyond to support older and disabled people across the country to live a better life, are bearing the brunt of public spending cuts. “Dismayed” does not begin to describe our reaction to the £250m cut to the social care workforce.

Support workers should not have to strike to be taken seriously by the government. A lack of industrial action should not be taken as an opportunity to abandon more promises. Support workers are skilled professionals with a significant range of responsibilities, yet they can walk into better-paid roles in the NHS, retail, and hospitality. And in the face of a cost of living crisis, many are doing just that. If you have a loved one who relies on care and support to live their life, you know the impact this will have.

With an average vacancy rate of 21 per cent and significant limitations to the home office sponsorship scheme, the priority must be recruitment and retention. Here at Dimensions, we are determined to pay our staff at the level they deserve and have implemented three pay awards in the last year, but we’re restricted in going further by tough limits on local authority budgets.