Anonymous

“I work in adult social care. Wages have not kept up with inflation, and we have lost a significant percentage of our pay, due to inflation and inadequate or no pay rises.

For this reason I and several colleagues have had to move out of Bristol, as housing has become too expensive, and pay has not kept up with the local housing costs. We have consistently over several years been asked to reduce support for vulnerable citizens as much as we can, under the guise of promoting independence, but as this has been going on for years, it does not seem possible to keep cutting whilst meeting assessed eligible needs.

It has been suggested that we should make more use of community services, a lot of which have been cut, due to funding cuts. We now more frequently have to request an agreement from senior managers for new and increased support, and I’m finding they are beginning to refuse requests, more than previously, which I guess must be due to the substantial reductions in local authority funding.

Our team is short-staffed, and several people have left, without being replaced. The job has become less rewarding, as when you assess someone’s support needs and identify services that could help, but get told that either this will not be agreed, or that you have to do a lot more work than previously to justify it, it can be disheartening.

These issues make the job more pressured, and several colleagues have gone off sick with stress. I’ve been advised by managers that recruitment is difficult.”