Page 16 - Unfair-To-Care-22-23-Flipbook

JAMES IS GOING TO LEAVE SOCIAL CARE, NOT BECAUSE
HE DOESN’T LOVE HIS JOB, THE PEOPLE HE SUPPORTS, OR HIS TEAM, BUT BECAUSE HE HAS HIS OWN FAMILY TO THINK ABOUT.
SECTION 3: THE 2022-23 RESULTS
JAMES IS LEAVING THE JOB HE LOVES
Dimensions is a national not-for-profit organisation supporting people with learning disabilities, autism, behaviours of distress and with complex health needs.
Like so many other care providers, it is caught in a cycle of recruitment and staff turnover as a consequence of a lack of funding for competitive and fair salaries.
Here, the injustice of low pay in the sector is starkly illustrated by their Support Worker, James.
Having a sister who accesses nutrition through a PEG tube10 and supporting others who share these needs, James is skilled at ensuring PEG tubes are kept clean.
Whilst visiting his sister when she was in hospital, James noted that none of the senior nurses there were confident about how to do this and eventually James stepped in to use his experience and expertise, offering guidance on how to do it.
James is going to leave social care, not because he doesn’t love his job, the people he supports, or his team, but because he has his own family to think about. James knows he can get a better paid job in the NHS tomorrow, and with the cost-of-living crisis to consider, his decision, in his own words, is “a no brainer”.
Reproduced with the kind permission of Dimensions.
10. A tube that provides nutrition via the abdominal wall, directly into the stomach 16