Royal recognition for Homecare Voices
- May 22
- 1 min read
Earlier this week, Ann and I attended a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, having been nominated by Skills for Care.
Buckingham Palace Gardens only opens to the public for these invite-only Royal Garden Parties. Everybody there has been nominated for their public service. I set up Homecare Voices on my own 18 months ago. We are a not-for-profit, free-to-join peer support network for homecare workers. We've now brought together over 570 of us from all over the UK.
Ann was one of our earliest members, and she joined as my guest. We danced to the music of the royal bands, ate some beautiful food, explored every corner of the gardens and even saw the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine!
As we enjoyed all of the sights, tastes and sounds of this very special occasion, I wished more of us could get this kind of recognition. That the public would come to understand and advocate against the unpaid gaps in our rotas which make it so hard to make ends meet and which lock our migrant colleagues into exploitative working hours.
We'll keep doing everything we can to ensure homecare workers are well supported in our roles and to raise much-needed awareness about issues like unpaid gaps, restrictive Certificates of Sponsorship, work-related expenses and obscure job adverts.
What a day! Watch our video about it below.
Peer support
Homecare Voices is a not-for-profit peer support network run by and for homecare workers, with daily talking points, fortnightly online meetups and opportunities to attend events and participate in research.
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