Newham Citizens bring blessing and gifts to care home staff

Newham Citizens, Br Philip with Care Staff

Brother Philip Thomas of St Anthony's Catholic Church in Forest Gate, east London, blessed Westgate House Care Home on Thursday, July 2 to support the incredible care workers who have been looking after residents there with important health needs. Care packs containing toiletries, luxury items, biscuits, letters and cards from students, as well as items of PPE, were distributed to staff to say thank you for all their hard work over the last few months.

This blessing and gift giving took place as part of the #LivingWage4KeyWorkers campaign that is being led by Citizens UK. The community organising charity is calling on the government to provide a £1.4 billion cash boost to bring workers up to the real Living Wage. Events took place up and down the country to call on the government to use the July statement to award a real Living Wage to care workers.

St Anthony's Catholic primary school, St Bonaventure's Catholic secondary school and Sarah Bonnell school worked on this project together.

Caroline Verdant from St Anthony's Primary School said: "We have been speaking to care workers about the challenges of Covid-19. In Newham, the council have done some brilliant work and already pay all of their homecare workers the Real Living Wage. Due to the current crisis, we know how hard it is for local government at the moment, and the funding challenges they have. That is why we need national government to step up and ensure our care workers get paid properly, get good protection and equality with the NHS. With this action we wanted to say thank you, celebrate the dedication of the sector and demand funding for better pay and conditions for all staff."

Becky Griffiths from Sarah Bonnell School said: "We have been preparing these care packages for the last two weeks with students who have written letters with messages of personal thanks. Our students have reflected on the challenges of Covid19, they were really excited to let the care workers know how much they are appreciated for the incredible work they do. We want our students to grow up to reshape the world as they want it to be, and that starts with actions like this one."

The Citizens UK campaign demands for 'Proper pay - Proper protection - and Equality with the NHS' for care workers. A petition appealing for Health Secretary Matthew Hancock MP to adequately fund social care and ensure care workers and all social care sector staff get at least the real Living Wage (£9.30 an hour and £10.75 in London) has been launched by Care Worker Tabitha, who spent 29 days ill with Covid-19 and was left reliant on food donations as her low paid, zero hour contract job leaving no safety net.

The campaign, which received backing from the Anglican Bishop of Barking, Bishop Peter Hill, the Archbishop of York and Bishop of Durham alongside other faith, civil society and trade union leaders from the Royal College of Nursing and Unison NW comes as recent evidence from the Resolution Foundation reveals that almost half (500,000) of all frontline care workers currently earn below the real Living Wage, and new research from the Living Wage Foundation finds around 280,000 social care employees are in insecure and low paid work that leaves them particularly vulnerable to Covid-19.

Nathan Chan, of St Anthony's Primary School, said: "The care home staff were blown away by the messages and packages prepared by the students. We look forward to building our relationship with them."

LINKS

Newham Citizens is an alliance of 23 institutions across Newham who work together for the power, social justice and the common good. For more information see: www.citizensuk.org/east_london

See the petition here: www.livingwage4keyworkers.org.uk/share-the-campaign

Watch the Blessing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lUqZ4b9YYkHyYpFYgcCV6_HbR9Yq9Jqc/view