Workforce funding announcement

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, tomorrow. 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.

Here at Dimensions we are determined to pay our staff at a 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.

We won’t be deterred. We will continue to call for support worker pay to be aligned to NHS Band 3, a benchmark that reflects the skills required, and will stop our dedicated workforce being treated as second class citizens.

Rachael Dodgson, Chief Executive at not-for-profit support provider Dimensions