Nine care workers from across the UK joined the Homecare’s Got Talent Choir to release a charity single recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios to raise urgent awareness of the shocking levels of financial hardship within the care sector.
Several famous faces have also shared their talents for the project having joined the Home Care’s Got Talent judging panel earlier this year: musician Kuill from The Voice, Married at First Sight’s Matt Jameson as well as The Fizz star Jay Aston. The track, a cover of Robbie Williams’ Angels, launched on Friday 28th November and immediately hit Number 8 on the iTunes Download Chart.
But behind the music lies a far more serious issue.
According to The Care Workers’ Charity, food bank usage among care workers is five times the national average. Many carers are working 60 hours a week yet still cannot afford to heat their homes or provide Christmas presents for their children.
The charity warns that half a million UK care workers are in financially precarious situations, with some earning the equivalent of below minimum wage once unpaid travel time and personal costs are deducted.
This Christmas, while care workers are supporting the nation’s most vulnerable, many of their own children are going without basic essentials.
Dan Archer, Founder of Homecare’s Got Talent and CEO of Visiting Angels, explained, “It’s a nice story that care workers recorded at Abbey Road… but the reality is far from nice.
“If this were starving children, the country would be outraged. Well, it is starving children – the children of the people caring for everyone else. We made this single to raise money, yes, but also to force the nation to look again at how we treat the people we rely on most.
“When you listen to the lyrics, they speak to what carers do ‘and through it all, she offers me protection’. It’s high time our policy makers did more to protect this precious workforce.”
The caregivers travelled from as far away as Scotland and North Wales to take part in the recording, representing home care providers Caremark, Home Instead, Voyage Care, Visiting Angels, Mochridhe, Vitality Care and Calon Lan Community Care. With the support of the public, they believe they can surpass the original version’s chart success from 1997 and go all the way to No.1.
All profits raised by the single’s downloads will be donated to the Care Workers’ Charity. The charity is dedicated to supporting the social care workforce, those providing care and support to the million+ people drawing on social care.
The project’s message is simple: care workers deserve better and so do their families. Angels by the Homecare’s Got Talent Choir is available to download now:
Removing barriers for migrant workers in Scotland’s care sector
Migrant social care workers impacted by the UK Government’s changes to immigration policy are to be offered targeted support in Scotland.
In the year ending June 2025, the number of Health and Care Worker visas issued to migrant workers in Caring Personal Service Occupations fell by 88%, following restrictions introduced by the UK Government to the visa route.
The subsequent decision by the UK Home Office in July to close the Social Care Visa Route altogether will have a further impact on the social care sector.
According to a Scottish Care survey, more than a quarter of the social care workforce in Scotland is made up by international workers – with many sector leaders citing concerns with workforce shortages and recruitment.
The Scottish Government is continuing to call on the Home Office to reverse its decision to close the route and is investing £500,000 to fund a tailored offer to help ‘displaced’ international social care workers who have found themselves without sponsored employment elsewhere in the UK at no fault of their own.
The funding will be used to help support international social care workers meet the costs associated with moving to and working in Scotland’s social care sector.
Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “The UK Government’s hostile and restrictive migration policies are damaging Scotland’s health and social care sector.
“In Scotland we need a migration system that works for our NHS, our social care sector, our businesses and third sector. Until we have the full powers over migration that will come with independence, we will do all we can within the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament to mitigate the UK Government’s harmful approach to migration.
“I am therefore pleased to confirm today that the Scottish Government will create a bespoke offering to help social care workers who have been displaced to come to Scotland and contribute to our care sector.
“We will provide £500,000 to mitigate the devastating impact of the UK Government’s closure of the care worker visa route and provide targeted support to help displaced social care workers.
“This will support international social care workers already in the UK who have lost their social care jobs as a result of their employer losing their visa sponsor licence, to come to Scotland and contribute their valuable skills to our social care sector.
“It is our intention for this work to begin immediately so that social care workers can settle into new jobs before Christmas.”
Care matters to us all. We all want good quality cradle to grave care for ourselves and our loved ones (writes TUC’s ABIGAIL HUNT). This is only possible if the workers delivering care services have good pay and conditions.
The global care workforce is huge, totalling at least 381 million workers, two-thirds of whom are women. Worldwide this is 11.5 per cent of total employment and 19.3 per cent of female employment.
In the UK, adult social care jobs alone contribute at least £55.7 billion to the economy and constitute around 6 per cent of total UK employment.
Yet care work is persistently insecure and exploitative. Low and insecure pay, bad employment conditions, violence and harassment, and a limited training and career development are part and parcel of everyday life for care workers.
Recent TUC analysis shows that care workers across the UK are earning below the real living wage and are significantly underpaid relative to pay across the rest of the economy. The median salary of social care workers and childcare practitioners is less than two-thirds of that of all employees nationally.
On 29th October, trade unions, governments, the UN and other social partners will mark the International Day for Care.
This day, initiated by trade unions and recognised in July through a UN General Assembly Resolution, gives visibility to the care economy – and care workers – worldwide and provides an opportunity to build momentum for increased public investment and decent work in the care sector.
Here are three ways that global solidarity and action matter for decent work in the care economy:
The care workforce is global
In recent years ‘global care chains’ have emerged as rising demand for care services has seen migrant workers, largely female, fill care jobs – including childcare, social care and domestic workers as well as nurses, doctors and educators – in turn leaving their own children and relatives in the care of paid workers and family in their home country.
The UK is a key link in the chain, with labour migration increasingly recognised as critical to deliver care services. In 2022 the UK Government expanded the care worker visa scheme to help tackle the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis in social care. This meant that in 2022/23 70,000 international care workers were recruited, up 50,000 from the previous year.
But the TUC has identified that as international recruitment has increased, so has the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers.
This includes wage theft, high recruitment fees with non-permitted repayment clauses and debt bondage as well as abuse of the immigration system by employers to blackmail workers and prevent them seeking other employment.
Therefore the fight for decent care jobs must include the experiences, priorities and needs of international care workers.
The global union movement provides solidarity and support
Global union solidarity and joint action is critical to build care worker movements and support workers.
Sharing insights into working conditions helps unions provide vital workforce support. Trade unions in destination countries have provided information on immigration, employment rights and common labour abuses with migrant care workers via unions in countries of origin. This toolkit produced by unions in Italy is a great example.
Global labour law and policy raise the bar on domestic standards for decent care work
Global and regional labour standards and policy have tackled historic discrimination and exploitation against care workers by setting transnational employment rights floors – and binding governments to act.
Many unions have now turned their attention to getting their government to ratify C.189, including in the UK. From Belgium to Mexico, where it is in force, C.189 has helped extend rights such as paid leave, minimum wages and employment contracts to domestic workers.
In 2015 governments worldwide agreed the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including gender equality (Goal 5) and decent work (Goal 8). This has increased resources and political will, putting care on the policy agenda for the first time ever in many countries.
Important regional initiatives have also emerged. Earlier this year European social partners agreed a social dialogue committee for social services, including adult social care and childcare, covering around 9 million workers across the EU.
Next year will bring important opportunities to reinforce the global framework for care workers’ rights.
In May 2024 governments, trade unions and employers will discuss decent work in the care economy at the International Labour Conference, where unions will seek commitment to a new ILO standard for care jobs.
And we hope to see the UN General Assembly build on this year’s Resolution with a more substantive agreement committing governments to building and financing comprehensive care systems – with decent work and collective bargaining at their heart.
Follow the International Day for Care: #InvestInCare #Care2023
Read more about TUC’s priorities for the care workforce at these links:
New staff joining the social care workforce are to have entry costs paid by the Scottish Government until the end of March.
Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) checks and Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) registration will now be funded to help encourage more staff into the profession and address winter staffing pressures.
The scheme starts today and will include staff taking up direct care posts in adult social care, along with comparable roles in children’s social care services and the justice sector.
It has been introduced following discussions with COSLA and will cover local authority, private and third sectors.
Social care minister Kevin Stewart said: “Care workers have been absolutely critical to our pandemic response, giving vulnerable people the care they need and avoiding further pressure falling on the NHS.
“This trial aims to assist easing winter pressures in this sector by removing any financial barriers that may stop people from applying for a rewarding career in care.
“There are significant pressures in social care due to high vacancy levels and increased demand. I hope this support will encourage those considering joining this vital workforce to go ahead and do so.
“We will continue to work closely with our partners to identify all possible ways we can assist the social care sector to aid recruitment and retention within the workforce at this critical time.”
Basic PVG checks cost £59. SSSC registration costs between £15 and £80 depending on the role.
Care workers will rally at the Scottish Parliament this weekend (Saturday 23 October) as they step-up their fight for £15 an hour social care minimum wage.
GMB is inviting the media, public and politicians to come and listen to the testimonies of members from across the care industry, detailing their experiences and struggles of care delivery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need for substantial pay increases.
Pre-pandemic the Fair Work Convention’s Social Care Report established that over 200,000 staff were employed in the social care sector, four-fifths of which were women, but revealed a billion-pound industry mired in precarious work, excessive hours, and chronic low pay – facts reinforced by testimonies of GMB members in social care in our ‘Show You Care’ Report.
The Scottish Government consultation on the future of a National Care Service will close on Tuesday 2 November.
Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland Secretary, said:“We can make work better for hundreds of thousands of care workers now and in future if we substantially improve their pay, and that should be all the motivation needed to deliver a £15 an hour social care minimum as the centrepiece of a National Care Service.
“COVID-19 has exposed all the underlying problems facing workers care, problems that were well understood by employers and political leaders pre-pandemic but left unchallenged, and contributed towards care becoming the ‘crisis within a crisis’.
“Let’s learn the lessons. If we want to tackle the current understaffing crisis, end exploitative employment practices, and ultimately improve standards for everyone, then we must start paying people properly for the essential work they do.
“That’s why the prospect of wages amounting to little more than £10 an hour in the years to come simply won’t stand, and it’s why GMB members across Scotland’s social care sector are ‘fighting for fifteen’.
“The current situation is not sustainable; it is dangerous for patients and becoming incredibly difficult for staff.” – Dr John Thomson, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland
A substantial new investment of over £300 million in hospital and community care has been unveiled to help tackle what is anticipated to be the toughest winter the NHS and social care system has ever faced.
The new multi-year funding will support a range of measures to maximise capacity in our hospitals and primary care, reduce delayed discharges, improve pay for social care staff, and ensure those in the community who need support receive effective and responsive care.
The NHS and Care Winter Package of additional funding includes:
Recruiting 1,000 additional NHS staff to support multi-disciplinary working
£40 million for ‘step-down’ care to enable hospital patients to temporarily enter care homes, or receive additional care at home support, with no financial liability to the individual or their family towards the cost of the care home
Over £60 million to maximise the capacity of care at home services
Up to £48 million will be made available to increase the hourly rate of social care staff to match new NHS band 2 staff
£20 million to enhance Multi-Disciplinary Teams, enable more social work assessments to be carried out and support joint working between health and social care
£28 million of additional funding to support primary care
£4.5 million available to Health Boards to attract at least 200 registered nurses from outwith Scotland by March 2022
£4 million to help staff with their practical and emotional needs, including pastoral care and other measures to aid rest and recuperation
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “As the winter period approaches, it is vital that we do all we can to maximise the capacity of the NHS and social care system. That’s why I’m setting out our £300 million NHS and Care Winter Package today.
“We cannot look at the NHS in isolation we must take a whole systems approach and these measures will help alleviate pressure across the NHS and social care.
“This significant new investment will help get people the care they need as quickly as possible this winter. Bolstering the caring workforce by increasing their numbers, providing them with additional support, and increasing the wages of social care staff.
“We’ve previously provided funding to ensure that adult social care staff are paid at least the real living wage. Today we’re going further and our new investment will ensure that adult social care staff who are currently paid the real living wage will get a pay rise of over 5%
“Measures I have announced today will help patients whose discharge has been delayed waiting for care and help get them out of hospital and on to the next stage in their care. This helps the individual by getting them the right care, and helps the wider system by ensuring the hospital capacity is being used by those who need that specialist level of clinical care.
“This £300 million of new funding will also fund increases in social care capacity in the community and in primary care – helping to ease the pressure on unpaid carers.
“Our NHS, social care staff and social work staff have been remarkable throughout the pandemic and today’s additional investment will help support them to deliver care to people across Scotland this winter.”
Meanwhile,the latest Emergency Department performance figures for Scotland published by the Scottish Governmentyesterday for August 2021 show that four-hour performance has deteriorated for the fourth consecutive month, again reaching a record low – while the number of patients staying in a major Emergency Department for 12-hours or more reaches a record high.
In August 2021 there were 117,552 attendances to major Emergency Departments across Scotland.
Data show that four-hour performance reached a new record low, with 75.4% of patients being seen within four-hours. One in four patients stayed in a major Emergency Department for four-hours or more before being admitted, transferred or discharged.
The number of 12-hour stays in August 2021 nearly doubled when compared to July 2021. 1,346 patients stayed in a major Emergency Department for 12-hours or more, compared to 760 in July 2021. This figure increased for the fourth consecutive month and it is the highest number of 12-hour stays since records began.
Data also show that 5,279 patients spent eight hours or more in a major Emergency Department. This is the highest figure since records began. The number of patients delayed by eight-hours or more increased for the fourth consecutive month.
Dr John Thomson, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, said: “The challenge for health care workers is growing significantly. In Scotland, the army have been called in to assist the ambulance services.
“In Emergency Departments, long stays are rising drastically, and one in four patients are staying in an Emergency Department for more than four-hours. It is extremely worrying. These pressures are likely to mount further, and performance deteriorate even more as we head into winter.
“We are seriously concerned about patient safety. Long stays put patients at risk, particularly vulnerable patients, and especially with covid still present in the community. We urgently need a plan to increase flow throughout the hospital, to reduce exit block, to prevent crowding, and to ensure that patients who need it can quickly be moved into a bed for their care.
“The current situation is not sustainable; it is dangerous for patients and becoming incredibly difficult for staff.
“We welcome this afternoon’s announcement by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Humza Yousaf MSP, including the recruitment of more staff and funding for hospital and community care. We hope that these measures will begin to alleviate pressures across the health system, and in particular reduce ambulance handover delays, long stays in Emergency Departments and exit block in our hospitals.
“However, while we welcome this investment, short-term cash injections do little to resolve long-term problems. We must see a long-term workforce plan that includes measures to retain health workers, particularly Emergency Medicine staff, as well as a long-term strategy for social care.”
Responding to the Scottish Government’s announcement to uplift care workers pay to just over £10 an hour, GMB Scotland Secretary Louise Gilmour said:“If we want to tackle the understaffing crisis in social care then we need to substantially increase the basic rate of pay, and for GMB that mean’s a £15 an hour minimum.
“Many of our frontline services are already being delivered on the back of wages of just under or over £10 an hour, and we know this isn’t nearly enough.
“To transform social care for the people who need it and the people who deliver it, particularly as we roll-out a national care service, then we must go further.”
The Scottish Government may also be facing industrial action from nursing staff over the winter …
NHS pay dispute in Scotland: Royal College of Nursing members to be asked about willingness to take industrial action
RCN members working for NHS Scotland are to be asked what industrial action they would be willing to take in support of their ongoing trade dispute with the Scottish government and NHS employers over pay.
The indicative ballot will open on 12 October and close on 8 November.
Eligible members will receive information on the different forms of industrial action.
The indicative ballot will be run by Civica, the independent scrutineer that organised the consultative ballot earlier this year. Eligible members will receive an email from Civica with a personal link to the online voting site on Tuesday 12 October. Weekly reminder emails will also be sent.
The result of the indicative ballot will not formally authorise industrial action. It will be used to inform the next steps RCN members might take.
Julie Lamberth, Chair of the RCN Scotland Board, said: “Industrial action is always a last resort but the current staffing challenges are causing unacceptable risks to patients and staff. The Scottish government has the opportunity to do the right thing by nursing.
“I would urge all eligible RCN members to seek out the available information on what taking industrial action means and what the implications of doing so might be. We need each member to make up their own mind and have their say in the ballot.”
Colin Poolman, RCN Scotland Director, added: “This is your chance to speak up – for your patients and your colleagues. Many of you rejected the pay offer and you know the link between fair pay and safe staffing.
“This is your opportunity to tell us what action you are prepared to take. To let the Scottish government know that the time to protect patient safety and value the safety critical role of nursing is now.”
Care workers employed by the charity and social landlord Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association will start a programme of industrial action against their management’s “insulting” 1 per cent pay offer.
Action will involve a work to rule including a ban on all overtime and additional holiday working from 17.00 hours from today (Tuesday 7 September), impacting service delivery in care support, cleansing and domestic assistance across twenty-eight sites.
The dispute is the culmination of months of fruitless negotiations between GMB Scotland representatives and Hanover senior management, who themselves were awarded a 4.5 per cent pay rise in 2020, to substantially lift the pay and conditions of frontline staff.
GMB Scotland organiser Ude Joe-Adigwe said:“The employer’s offer means a real-terms pay cut for staff who have worked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s totally insulting.
“Our members provide vital care and assistance for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, and they deserve to be treated so much better than this.
“This is not a decision our members have taken lightly; they are proud of their work, but it’s a shame their employer won’t value frontline staff the way they value themselves.
“This action shows Hanover that their staff are prepared to fight for their dignity and value, and we would hope the employer reconsidered its position.”
GMB Scotland is urging all MSPs to support its campaign for a £15 an hour minimum wage for care workers.
In a letter to political party leaders ahead of a Scottish Parliamentary debate on the Independent Review of Adult Social Care this afternoon (Tuesday 16 February), the union calls on MSPs to grasp “a once in a generation opportunity to transform social care” by underpinning reforms with “proper value for the workers who will deliver it.”
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport Jeane Freeman MSP will lead the debate for the Scottish Government and recommend the incoming Scottish parliament should implement the findings of the Independent Review “as quickly as practicable”, with opposition MSPs lining-up to back GMB’s pay increase plan for the sector.
The union’s ‘Fight for Fifteen’ campaign was launched following the publication of its sector report, ‘Show You Care: Voices from the frontline of Scotland’s broken social care sector’, which highlighted the significant challenges facing care workers before and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
GMB Scotland’s Women’s Campaign Unit Organiser Rhea Wolfson said:“The recommendations of the independent review are a once in a generation opportunity to transform social care, but only if they are underpinned by proper value for the workers who will deliver them.
“The report is clear that every £1 spent on social care generates £2 for the wider economy, so if government and industry invest properly in this sector and its people, the effects could be transformative not just for workers and service users, but for society too.
“COVID-19 has exposed how poorly our care workers have been valued, a workforce of mainly low-paid and often exploited women who found themselves on the frontline of a crisis without proper safety or support.
“We owe them a huge debt and if we really want to put care on an equal footing with the NHS as the Cabinet Secretary suggests, then we have to back that up with the investment to match.
“Now is the time to be bold and today Holyrood can rise to the challenge. That’s why we are urging MSPs to stand with our members in care and support their campaign to fight for fifteen.”
The UK has reached a crucial moment in terms of social care. Two key messages at the heart of UNISON’s Pay Fair for Care national day of action and rally were that we must ‘stand up for care workers’ and ‘keep up the pressure’.
The event – co-hosted by the Future Social Care Coalition, a cross-party alliance of more than 80 organisations and individuals – comes against a background of crisis in the social care sector.
That has been compounded by 11 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has raised awareness nationally of the work that care workers do, but in a context of increased risk to their own lives as the virus took a devastating toll on care homes and the vulnerable.
Yet many employees in care homes, together with those looking after people in the community, earn less than the real living wage of £9.50 an hour (£10.85 in London). UNISON wants ministers to ensure every care worker is on the real living wage rate, as a bare minimum.
UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea told those attending the rally: “Care is part of the infrastructure of this country … it is essential.”
Ms McAnea was able to refer to an independent report, commissioned by the Scottish government and only released moments before the rally, which stresses that the care sector is “highly gendered”, with 83% of the workforce being female.
“Were 83% male, she said, “it would not be marginalised as it is.”
But she continued: “This is a happy day – we’ve got fantastic support. Let’s stand up for care workers. Make what happens in care, fair and deliverable.”
Care worker and UNISON senior vice president Sian Stockham told the rally a little of her own story – and why she has started a petition to government to create an emergency support fund to increase care workers’ wages.
“The general public is calling us heroes and going out and clapping for us – let’s put those claps into words,” she said.
Not only is pay in the sector low, there’s also an issue with zero-hours contracts, she added. “How can you budget when you don’t know what you’re getting?”
Ms Stockham, who at 66 is unable to retire and has two jobs in order to make ends meet, went on: “There have been times when I couldn’t put my heating on. A few years ago, I remember walking around with holes in my shoes.”
On misconceptions about the nature of care work, she responded ironically: “Oh, I’m ‘low-skilled’,” before explaining just a few of the skills her work entails.
Many speakers stressed the need for cross-party political support for the issue – ‘it’s the only way to get things done’ was a recurring theme.
Liz Kendall, Labour’s shadow minister for social care, said: “Transforming social care is the challenge of our generation”, adding that, “We must make sure that all frontline care workers get the pay and conditions that they need.”
She – like many other speakers – noted that social care and the NHS “are inextricably linked”.
But not only was the current state of social care “morally wrong,” it was also “economically illiterate.” If carers have to give up work or reduce hours, or if a vulnerable person is stuck in hospital because of a lack of care, both are far more costly to the economy than properly funded social care.
The rally saw speakers from across the Westminster spectrum, from the charity and voluntary sector and from trade unions.
They included former health secretary Jeremy Hunt and independent peer Lord Victor Adebowale, the chief executive of the social care enterprise Turning Point, who stressed the need for a proper living wage for care workers.
Former minister for pensions Baroness Ros Altmann said that nobody disagreed about the need for an overhaul of the social care system, but “we need to get on with it” and “we need a new Beveridge,” referring to the 1942 report by Liberal economist William Beveridge that formed the basis for the Welfare State as part of the country’s recovery after WWII.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner – herself a UNISON member and former care worker – described the pandemic has having “created a hunger and a thirst for us to do the right thing”.
Social care “saves the taxpayer so much money in the end,” she said. Stressing the importance of it being a cross-party campaign, she added: “But no more jam tomorrow”.
Two panel discussions sandwiched messages of support, which included video calls from national treasures Joanna Lumley and Jo Brand.
“I’m backing UNISON’s call for a living wage for all the care workers,” said the Ab Fab star. “They seem to be the invisible part of our nation’s health system. They look after millions of people, they do it for practically nothing and some of them for nothing at all. It seems massively unfair that they’re the forgotten ones.”
Comic and former nurse Jo Brand – after apologising for her “lockdown haircut” – said that “care workers are simply not rewarded for the very, very hard work that they do. Pay care workers a living wage.”
Other messages came from Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey, shadow immigration minister Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour peer David Blunkett and shadow minister for employment Seema Malhotra.
As the rally concluded, Ms AcAnea reminded everyone: “Let’s keep the pressure up!”
Home carers in Glasgow City Council’s Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) will launch a ballot for industrial action next week, warning they have “no confidence” over plans for workplace testing of COVID-19 and amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding the vaccination programme.
Over 1,700 GMB Scotland members will take part in a three-week ballot, running from Tuesday 19 January to Monday 8 February, meaning service delivery in the HSCP could be affected by action as early as the week beginning Monday 22 February.
It follows a massive 93 per cent support for action among GMB members in a consultative ballot last month, a direct response to the Scottish Government’s Winter Preparedness Plan which put home carers to the back of the queue in the roll-out of workplace testing delivery.
GMB Scotland Organiser David Hume said:“There is no confidence whatsoever among our members in their employer or the government to sufficiently protect their health and safety at work. And why should there be?
“They were failed on PPE at the outset of this pandemic, they have been left waiting ten months for workplace testing, and some are already encountering problems getting their first vaccine.
“The HSCP should have been fighting tooth and nail for every resource to protect the safety of their employees and their service users. Instead they have been sitting on zoom calls for nearly a year waiting on guidance from the Scottish Government, only for Ministers to leave councils carrying the can for testing delivery.
“The interests of these key workers have been consistently forgotten and they are being treated negligently by their employer, and this government.”
