IT is unacceptable for the government to sidestep the issue of social care workers pay with Tuesday’s announcement of a public sector pay rise that won’t include them.

Care workers are here to care and have been a stalwart of the Covid-19 front line. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week our professional care home staff have continued to provide care under the most challenging of circumstance. They – like their amazing colleagues in health – have done this with compassion, providing a lifeline for the most vulnerable across all our communities.

This has never been a low skilled job, and should never again be consigned as a low paid role. We need the government to act now to ensure that each and every care worker is recognised and rewarded for their extraordinary work.

Vic Rayner, executive director, National Care Forum.