Our commitment to obtaining the recognition you deserve

Mickel Brown

We have reached out to the government and local authorities to raise awareness for all carers – the true heroes of social care and our business. We understand the demands being placed upon you currently and how much you are devoting your lives to care for those in our local community and we believe you deserve recognition now and long after COVID-19 has passed. As a result, we are creating a platform and a voice to showcase our passion and appreciation for you on a larger scale.

Skills for care last year in their annual report painted a gloomy picture of the Health & social care sector. They had estimated there were approximately 122,000 care vacancies within the UK care sector. In addition to this, despite contributing £40.5 billion to the UK economy, the average hourly rate of pay for a Care worker was £8.10 and 24% of these jobs were on zero-hour contracts, with an average turnover rate of 30.8%. These poorly figures alongside the additional strain and challenges presented by COVID-19, have left many Health and social Care workers under immense pressure and grossly undervalued. We have decided “enough is enough” and it is time to make a stand, recognising all carers who work tirelessly day and night, seven days a week to provide vital care in communities across the UK.

As you will know, a typical day of a Care worker consists of travelling home to home and supporting our most vulnerable members of society through the provision of personal care, administering medication, providing meals and companionship. We understand that as a community over the past months, we have all faced extreme personal challenges, however together we stood strong, persevered and continued to provide our services despite the circumstances. Also for those of you who have been unable to work due to falling ill, school closures and other issues COVID-19 presented, please be sure that we understand and you have our support.

Eleanor, as one of the largest care providers, employing over 1000 people across the UK, we are committed to turning the tide that we are currently faced with. We plan to do this by continuing to provide recognition for you all and improving our services for those we care for, our employees and Health & social care in society.

Also, you may have noticed we recently launched a London-wide recruitment campaign called ‘” We Need You”. We felt this caption perfectly encapsulated how much Eleanor and our most vulnerable in society could benefit from recruiting new carers (heroes as we like to call you all) and how we can better support the NHS at this time. We need new carers and we have the skills and competence to train and support additional carers in new communities. Furthermore, in the process of providing care in the community, we are confident in our ability to be able to prevent unnecessary bed blocking in hospitals, providing more essential beds for those individuals who need it most during this crisis.

We promise to stay relentless in our campaign, staying consistent with our goals to recognise and recruit carers. Many of you all, and other carers across the UK, have been affected in the same ways as doctors and medical teams across the NHS and we believe it is important to highlight this.

It is also important for us to maintain the number of care professionals with exemplary skills we have to support our business and services. As a result, we pledge to do what is necessary to provide the support and training needed, to ensure we maintain the high standards of care needed at this moment of time and going forward.

Nonetheless, we should all take responsibility as individuals, to ensure we stay home and self-isolate as much as possible. However, Eleanor are urging those who are able; to help either as a paid employee or volunteer. Perhaps these individuals may have recently lost their job in another sector, or they would like to give back to their community in some form – there are so many reasons why we should be pulling together as a country, to support the care sector at this time. Fortunately, we have the facilities to train these individuals swiftly, and the capacity to place them into the local community to help support those in need immediately. Without new recruits and volunteers, it will not be possible to continue our support of the most vulnerable with the attentive and high standard of care that is required at this time.

Last but not least, we would also like to use this campaign to highlight the wider importance of government, local authorities and communities in regards to supporting the social care sector as whole. This is where we would like your help, as we will continue to reiterate the importance of carers and the valued service they provide in a way that they truly deserve.