In Love and Care- documenting the heart of the UK care system.
2023/2024: an ongoing project
In Love and Care is in conversation with social care workers and people who give/receive care in this sector. Documenting the wide breadth of care, from elderly carers to young carers, to highlight the vital importance of a well-supported social care system.
Chelsey Depledge, Chelsey, Healthcare Assistant, 2024, from In Love and Care.
Pictured after work outside her home in Somerset.
Chelsey states that: ‘I believe to improve social care, more funding should go towards employing more staff, and more training should be put in place for staff so they feel comfortable and confident undertaking their job roles. More meaningful activities should be provided in care homes and social care settings for clients, to ensure they have a good quality of life and have activities where they can interact with others to combat loneliness and gain mental stimulation.’
Ellen, Foster Carer and Daycentre support worker for Adults with Learning Difficulties:
‘I foster care because I want to improve the experience of young people. I want to create new ways of working with and supporting them. I want to make a lasting impact on the people who come into my life.’
‘The way care work is portrayed, I think now as the future goes on, it will be more recognized as a career, and a really amazing career to have.’
Jan Church, Care Worker: ‘As a carer, I think you need to be really attentive and you need to watch out for signs of abnormality, and it might be that the resident is slightly tired or might have a pain, you know, and I think that’s part of our job, isn’t it, and to be attentive and to listen to what they say and report it back.’
Lola, Healthcare Assistant
Michelle, Day Centre Support worker:
‘If you speak to a lot of people, it’s the funding that is the problem, and we have to sort of beg, steal and borrow them. Over the years, we’ve had to make do and mend so many things. And our clients are paying quite a bit of money to come here. They should be having the best that we can offer them. And not jigsaw puzzles from a charity shop, why shouldn’t they be having brand new? I think the government needs to look at the funding, and they shouldn’t be stingy, then they would attract more people into care.’