Why We Care: Easy Read of the report
The Why We Care report
There are 140,000 adults aged from 18 - 65 with a learning disability in England who need extra support from social care workers with their everyday life.
Social care workers help people with things like getting washed and dressed, managing money, keeping healthy, going out into the community A community is the people and places in an area. and much more depending on a person's needs.
They make a big difference to the lives of people with a learning disability and their families, helping them to make friends, get a job or volunteer A volunteer is someone who helps out by doing work for free. role, and live their best lives.
The money to pay for social care comes from both the UK government and councils.
Councils can then give money to charities or organisations to give social care support to people with a learning disability who need it.
But social care is not getting enough money.
Social care workers need lots of skills to do their job but they do not get paid enough to show this.
People who do similar jobs in the NHS get paid more than people working in social care, which we think is unfair.
Lots of social care workers are leaving their jobs to work in the NHS and other places like supermarkets because they pay more.
Lots of people who are leaving their jobs in social care don't want to, but they are struggling to pay for the cost of living.
This means there are not enough social care workers to meet everyone's needs.
Without enough social care workers, people with a learning disability will have to wait longer to get support or might lose some of the care they get.
We asked social care workers at Mencap some questions.
366 people answered our questions.
They told us they liked their job, and it made them feel good to help people with a learning disability have a good quality of life.
But many told us they were finding things hard because of low pay and don't feel the government The Government are the people who run the country. The Government decide how much tax people should pay and how things like the National Health Service (NHS) should work. values Values are the things that are important to you. Mencap's values are being passionate, inclusive, brave, positive, and kind. the work they do or the skills they have.
We want this to change, so we have started the Why We Care campaign.
There will probably be a general election An election is when people choose who should be in charge of something. This could be in charge of a group, an area, or the country. People choose by voting. The person with the most votes wins. this year.
We want all political parties to promise to:
- give social care more money so that social care workers can be paid more.
- make a plan that will make sure there are enough social care workers so that everyone who needs social care can get it.
Do you agree that social care workers should get better pay for what they do?
If you agree, sign our petition to show your support for social care workers.
Thank you for making a positive difference.