London Citizens present Social Care Charter to government minister

Norman Lamb MP (centre) joins London Citizens to say: 'we care about care'

Faith and community groups from across London gathered for a tea party on the green opposite the Houses of Parliament on Monday, to promote the London Citizens Social Care Charter, which calls for the Living Wage for carers and improved services for housebound people receiving care. Norman Lamb MP, Minister for Care and Services came to meet campaigners and hear their demands.

Rabbi Danny Rich Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism who chaired the event said the issue was a matter of "prophetic justice". Participants included Sister Margaret Bannerton from Vincentian Care Plus, parishioners from Holy Apostles Parish in Pimlico and St John Vianney's West Green. A group of students came from St Charles College in Maida Vale.

The meeting heard short testimonies from a number of people. Jane D’Angelo, from Holy Apostles, said: “As a care recipient I’m very protective of the wonderful care workers who help make my daily life easier to manage. They do a hard job with grace and dignity. Yet they are paid a shockingly low rate of pay, have zero hour contracts and aren’t paid for the travel time between appointments. I believe that to improve social care we need to create a system that recognises and values the worker to achieve a better deal for the recipient. The Citizens UK Charter of good practice is building a movement of care providers and commissioners who also believe that is what’s required. My hope is that this movement will bring the issue of social care into the public arena in the build-up to the 2015 election.”

During the event, one of the UK’s most established charities offering care and accommodation to the elderly, the Abbeyfield Society, joined 13 other local care providers to sign up to the Citizens UK Social Care Charter and agreed to pay their staff the Living Wage.

Natasha Singarayer, Chief Operating Officer for the Abbeyfield Society said: “The Living Wage is all about being a compassionate employer and for Abbeyfield this is a no-brainer. If there is one thing we have learned over the past 58 years is that we are as good as our people. We have always believed in supporting them by offering the best training and development and have been rewarded by fantastic loyalty. The Living Wage is an important extension of this.

“The simple truth is that people who feel valued make better carers. Better carers mean happier residents and we see it as part of our charitable mission to spread this message throughout the sector. Too many people have a low status image of the care sector generally, paying the Living Wage and supporting the Citizens UK Charter of good practice are two ways that other care providers can turn that round.”

The Living Wage is currently £8.80 per hour in London and £7.65 per hour across the rest of the UK.

Matthew Bolton, deputy director, Citizens UK said, “We are very excited that Abbeyfield has committed to paying its directly employed care workers the Living Wage. This puts down a marker in the social care sector where low pay and practices such as non-payment of travel time have become the norm. We hope that the move by Abbeyfield will be a catalyst for other quality care providers to act.

“From the of experience of our Living Wage campaign, where for a decade we have been supporting hardworking, low paid people to get the dignity and pay they deserve, we realised that our campaign for better quality social care could not be about blame. We recognised that for people to receive quality care, the care workers themselves need to be valued and treated well.

“We have developed a Social Care Charter spelling out the basic standards that would enable quality for the recipient and dignity for the worker. These standards are not ground-breaking but what we are building is a movement, where recipients, care workers, providers and commissioners can work together to bring about the social care system we all want to see.”

Before developing the Charter, trained volunteers from Citizens UK had face to face conversations with thousands of people in and around their communities and heard story after story of people who are worried, frustrated and angry about the poor quality care that their parents or neighbours are receiving.

The charter they produced also details the support civil society can offer to help improve the adult social care system, including twinning programmes between churches, schools and care homes and dementia friendly training for community groups.

 For more information see: www.citizensuk.org/