MHA, the UK’s largest charity care provider, is holding its annual lecture this Wednesday (26 April) by addressing the timely theme of why it’s important to value care workers if we are to fix social care.

Writer and journalist Madeleine Bunting will be the keynote speaker, and she’ll be sharing her perspectives on why social care is undervalued and provide some historical context. In Madeleine’s book, “Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care” (2021), she spoke to many people whose work involved care.

The MHA believes a means of fixing social care is addressing the key workforce issues: “There are 165,000 vacancies in England alone,” they say, “but pay is often below that of supermarket staff, and lower than that of comparative roles in the NHS. This is resulting in huge backlogs of assessment, delays in older people getting the care they need and family and friends having to take on the role of unpaid carer. 

“Therefore, we want to explore how this could be addressed through better pay, recognition for the skills and professionalism involved – but how do we get there?”

The panel discussion will be hosted by MHA’s CEO, Sam Monaghan, and will include:

• Madeleine Bunting, award-winning author and Guardian journalist.
• Georgina Turner, Director at Skills for Care
• Tracy Campbell, MHA, Housing with Care Manager

It takes place on Zoom on Wednesday 26 April, 10am- 11:15, Zoom webinar. Tickets are free and can be booked here: www.bit.ly/walterhall