Walking in my shoes...
- Apr 1
- 4 min read
The following blog was written by Tia Williamson*, a member of Homecare Workers’ Group.
*name changed to protect identity. You can listen to Tia reading the blog in the video below, or scroll down to read it yourself.
Quite often, you hear about domiciliary care workers and you think of people that drive from client to client in their cars, but there are some of us that are called 'walkers' who actually walk from client to client.
A bit of background info about myself. Due to being in a car accident aged 14, my Dad managed to write off a Volvo Estate, would you believe? I never had the urge to learn to drive after that, even though I wasn't badly hurt. But even if I had learned to drive, I could never afford to run a car.
I was self-employed when the pandemic hit and so I looked into care work and found that there were care companies who employed walkers, and even better, I could work in my local area where I live. And so, I became a walking domiciliary care worker.
I soon learned that walkers are at the mercy of care coordinators. They're the people that compile our rotas, who seem to think that our walking pace is that of Usain Bolt! They give us five minutes travel time when in reality it is actually a twenty minute walk, and more if you have to climb a hill. Who are they actually trying to kid? It's just making the rota look better than it is.
This practice leads you to deviate from your actual rota time by some margin. I always say that the rota times are just a suggestion, rather than being set in stone.
And then this actually leads us to the very sore subject of travel time. My current employer does not pay travel time, and yet it is classed as working time, because sadly we haven't yet managed to teleport between clients.
These are my recorded walking times in my shift: 3 minutes, 12 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, 7 minutes and 25 minutes. All this time is unpaid. I also worked from 7 o clock in the morning to 3 o clock in the afternoon with absolutely no break. I've actually worked for domiciliary care companies who regard your travel time as being your break, which is absolutely not true.
My previous employer did start to pay travel time, albeit minimum wage rate, and in theory this should make care coordinators have better rotas for walkers. As in, the closer the clients are together in a geographical area, the less travel time they will have to pay out, which will save the company money, and also our shoe leather.
On my usual round now, it is very common for me to walk five miles per shift, as in walking. I have actually walked though eight miles in one shift, and when I used to work double shifts, I could walk thirteen - that's 13 - to fifteen miles a day, which was five days a week.
I'm not going to lie, being a walker is very physically demanding. You are walking in every single weather condition that exists, be that hot sun, driving rain, storms and snow. Unlike a driver, you don't get to sit down between clients when you're a walker. You have no shelter. You can't put the radio on. It's just something that can feel relentless as you walk from client to client, completing your tasks. You come in, you take your outer clothing off, you wash your hands, you put on your PPE and you start your call. Over and over again.
And you incur costs in this job that your employer does not pay for, yet they are essential for your job. You have to purchase thermals, a warm jacket, gloves and a hat, otherwise you will be very cold in the winter months in this country. For transitional months, you might need a hoodie jacket and sunglasses. Expect to buy trainers every six months or so. I wear very sturdy, supportive trainer walking boots. Walking at a fast pace on pavements, the tread wears out pretty quickly. You'll also need a good, strong rucksack to carry your PPE, water bottle, snacks, spares, power bank. And your employer pays nothing for all of these items (apart from PPE). They all come out of your pocket.
This is why it's so important that we're fighting for the right to have a reasonable living, working wage and for fair pay and conditions in the domiciliary care world. I absolutely love doing my job and working for all the clients that I do, but I want to be remunerated fairly for what I do, for what I regard as being a very skilled job.
Peer support
Homecare Workers’ Group is a not-for-profit peer support network run by and for homecare workers in England. We host a secure online community, fortnightly drop-ins and quarterly in-person meetups around the country, as well as letting homecare workers know about other ways to get involved in meaningful activities outside of work.
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