Siobhan's Story

Siobhan, 34, from Isle of Wight East in the South East, trained as a care worker but found herself blocked from the career she wanted to build. Care homes across her constituency had vacant positions, yet couldn't offer wages that made the work sustainable. The problem wasn't a shortage of caring people or places that needed staff. Local authorities are constrained by central government grant limits that treat social care as a fiscal burden rather than essential infrastructure. HM Treasury and the Department of Health and Social Care have chosen to cap council funding below the real cost of care delivery, leaving trained workers like Siobhan unable to access decent employment in a sector crying out for staff. This is Blocked Britain. Disclosure: This programme challenges orthodox economic assumptions about government spending constraints.