HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE OF THE SOCIAL CARE WORKFORCE

Primary Author or Creator
Kathy Jenkins
Additional Author(s) / Creators
Common Weal
Type of Resource
Policy Paper
Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)
11pp
Date Published
Fast Facts

― There is a well-understood set of criteria which are viewed as being key to the health, safety and welfare of care workers.

― During the Covid crisis there is well-documented evidence of how poorly these criteria were properly ensured for care staff in Scotland.

― There is an internationally defined and accepted hierarchy of actions to ensuring that staff health, safety and welfare is properly protected and this must underpin our approaches in future.

― As well as these there are fundamental issues which must be addressed: pay, job security, training, work load and patterns, and the ability for staff to have a degree of control over their work and of influence on how care is provided.

― These can only be properly addressed by ensuring that staff have the ability to have their voice heard through collective bargaining and unionisation.