Did you see this great article from Dudley Sawyerr, London Care and Support Forum (LCAS) Chair, CareVision Head of Operations, published in the Health Plus Care Bulletin?
Dudley writes 'With recent media attention on the area of black lives, the question is, is this an area for Social Care to consider?'
I am writing this as a black man, Chair for care manager forums across London boroughs, a care manager, part of Care Vision, a successful Care management software app, and advocate for change within the Social Care sector.
Many years ago, I wrote a dissertation “To evaluate, is there a higher number of black and minority ethnic (BAME) workers employed within the Health and Social Care Sector compared to other sectors?” I found there was over half million BAME health and social care workers at the time and social care had the second highest amount of BAME employees in UK.
The sector alone has just over a 1.5 million plus workforce. Health Foundation analysis of Labour Force Survey, ONS - Found in London, BAME workers make up to 48% of health and social care and 13% outside London. Working out to be one in five of the whole workforce.
Also, the proportion of BAME workers employed in the adult social care workforce within regions is half or higher in relation to the proportion of the BAME working population within regions.
From this BAME workforce over a third are from a Black / Afro-Caribbean / Black British background.
These numbers /figures/statistics alone show that Black lives in our sector do matter as they play a major part.
This workforce has been sadly impacted upon during the pandemic. People from ethnic minority backgrounds constitute 14 per cent of the population but, they account for 34 per cent of critically ill Covid-19 patients and a similar percentage of all Covid-19 cases in a study by the Race Equality Foundation. In Public Health England recent key findings, individuals of Black African or Black Caribbean ethnicity may be of highest increased risk.
You can read the full article HERE