Nurses and carers are on the front line of the Covid-19 crisis. Demand that the government gives them fair pay and protection.

If this crisis has demonstrated anything, it is what we already knew: care matters. Our economy, our whole society would not function without it. We must protect and value those who deliver it. 

Seventeen percent of residential care workers live in poverty, half do not receive a real living wage and student nurses are being charged tuition fees to work on the front line. 

Boris Johnson said he owes the NHS his life, but without action those are just empty words. What he really owes them - and the thousands of carers and other key workers who are holding our country together - is proper protective gear, better working conditions and a living wage.

Our care workforce is overwhelmingly female, disproportionately BAME, undervalued and fighting to protect all our health. 

Last year already saw 44,000 NHS nursing vacancies and a shortage of more than 200,000 staff across NHS trusts and adult social care, with 30% of adult social care workers leaving annually. Meanwhile the lowest NHS pay band for a nurse is under £20,000 and many carers earn little more than minimum wage. 

Our petition calls for:

1. Guaranteed PPE for every front line worker 

2. Guaranteed real living wage for all carers

3. A pay rise for every nurse

4. The reintroduction of pre-coalition bursaries and an end to nursing tuition fees

5. End the migrant NHS surcharge for nurse and care workers *Campaign win - Government has now ended the NHS surcharge for all migrant NHS and care workers*

Sign our petition today to call for urgent action.

You can take further action by writing to your MP, and demanding that they commit to guarantee a real living wage and full PPE for all care workers, increase care funding to pre-2010 levels, and reinstate councils' duties under the care act.