Readers' letters - August 23

It was recently revealed that just five per cent of refugees resettled from Syria under the Government’s Vulnerable Person relocation programme (VPRP) have disabilities, including mobility issues or special education needs.

This is despite the fact that Britain’s pledge to resettle refugees made specific reference to support disabled Syrians and that the VPRP, which commits the Government to take in 20,000 refugees by 2020, was set up to accommodate the most at risk groups.

This is appalling and a new low in this Government’s treatment of refugees. Mrs May said a year ago that a disability or health condition should never dictate the path anyone could take.

This Government must be made to understand that they should stop passing off refugees as someone else’s problem. They will go down as the ones that watched while thousands suffered.

We all must also demand that the Government stops playing into a toxic narrative that claims showing compassion for people who are victims of poverty and war is wrong because they are after welfare and wish to do us harm.

Whether it was the Vietnamese in the 1970s, or the Ugandans in the 1980s or the Kosovans in the 1990s, we have a proud history of giving sanctuary to those escaping war and persecution.

We demean this legacy by turning our backs on desperate refugees, wishing to escape and build lives here. Europe is facing the biggest refugees crisis since the Second World War. It is a test of our humanity and principles, and test of our international cooperation.

Royston Jones

Address supplied

Awards reward outstanding care

Day in and day out in care homes, community services and people’s homes, social care workers are supporting adults who access care and support services and that’s why the Skills for Care Accolades were created to reward their hard work.

Skills for Care needs your help to persuade employers who may be supporting you, your family or someone like you to enter the Accolades that reward excellence in developing the skills and knowledge of their workforce.

Many people are not aware that 1.48 million people work in adult social care and the Accolades is designed to recognise the work they do that change people’s lives.

So please talk to your care provider to make sure they know they can enter. You may be a care manager or worker who thinks your own service should enter because you know just how good it is.

All entries are made online and all potential entrants have to go to www.skills

forcare.org.uk/Accolades to fill in the entry form by Thursday, September 21, to enter one of the 10 categories. The trophies are presented to the winners at a national awards ceremony in London next year.

All too often we only hear about poor services but the awards reward outstanding care provision so please talk to your provider today so they can get their chance to shine at the Accolades awards.

Sharon Allen OBE

CEO, Skills for Care

One rule for

the rich ...

There is charity status for public schools such as Eton, Harrow, Rugby etc, which means they have 80 per cent tax relief on business rates. Eton pay £821,000 over five years as opposed to £4m, yet state schools pay the full business rate.

Now we learn many private hospitals enjoy a £5m tax break over the next five years. It is no secret that the NHS is in a parlous state financially, resulting in ward closures, less staff, operations cancelled and pressure to make compromises.

Traditionally the Conservative party has ensured ‘nothing but the best’ for their own. Indeed the great Victorian Tory statesman Benjamin Disraeli stated that “a Conservative government is an organised hypocrisy”.

The Labour Government was no different. When in a position to do something, it did nothing.

Barry Geldard

Address supplied