PRESS RELEASE – 11th of November 2021
Today is a sad day for all of us working in social care. We say goodbye to over 50,000 of our colleagues and with them a wealth of experience and commitment, which is immeasurable. The people we support have lost friendly faces, which they have known for years, and our colleagues have lost their livelihoods after giving so much during the height of the pandemic. Covid-19 continues to take lives of so many in our communities, care homes remain understaffed and thousands of disabled people in our communities struggle to find staff and have their basic needs be met. We are in crisis. We know that there are already 112,000 vacancies within a crumbling sector which struggles to recruit are retain staff. Today, with the government legislation on mandatory vaccinations coming into force, thousands of our colleagues have been dismissed without any remuneration. We at Care and Support Workers Organise (CaSWO) would like to thank them for their dedication, care and love for those we support but also for the solidarity, they have given us, their colleagues, during the past 18 months, which have been so stressful and traumatic. This winter will be one like no other and we will remember the actions and inaction of this government. Social care needs radical reform. We all deserve better
Already the backsliding begins. ITV news is reporting that the Government has changed one point in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. They have accepted that academies will retain their ‘freedom’ to set their own pay scales for teachers. So the criteria in the School Teachers Pay and Conditions document will only apply to teachers in Local Authority schools. Why have the Government climbed down on this issue? It’s not as if this is a major financial problem for academies. But what will be the next change/climb down by the Government? Will academies be exempt from the National Curriculum? Will Local Authorities be able to build schools according to the needs of their communities or will all new schools, as at present, have to be academies?