Calls for more pay for care home workers in Sandwell
Care homes heroes should be rewarded for their work during the coronavirus pandemic with higher wages, a Sandwell labour councillor is demanding.
Councillor Liam Preece is calling on the borough’s MPs to lobby the government for extra cash, so staff in care and nursing homes receive better pay and conditions, saying they have been undervalued for too long.
The Charlemont with Grove Vale ward councillor is asking council officials to write to the borough’s four members of parliament pressing the case for more cash for adult social care.
Speaking to a meeting of he authority’s Budget and corporate scrutiny management board, he said: "Since the pandemic hit the UK we have become aware – if we were not already – of the invaluable work that adult social care workers do.
"Given the trauma that sector has had to go through in the last few months, I am of the view that adult social care workers deserve better pay and conditions for the work that they do in in the future and that they have been rather undervalued in the past."
His call comes as care homes in the borough have fought to contain the Covid-19 virus which has taken the lives of 50 elderly residents.
Arguing all four MPs should ask the government to stand by its promises made at the general election, he added: "The sacrifices of the individuals who work in that sector can’t be overstated and if the Conservative party wants to honour the pledges it made to social care – not only only as a nation as a whole – but also to the people in Sandwell last December, then they should be fighting for better funding for adult social care through the council."
