A MESSAGE TO OUR SERVICE USERS
To Everyone We Support
If you are reading this as someone who accesses Change Grow Live services, we want to speak to you directly. We are sorry for any disruption or uncertainty our industrial action may have caused to your care. That was never our intention, and it is the last thing any of us wanted.
Why Staff Are Taking This Action
We want to be honest with you about why this is happening. The workers who sit with you in appointments, who remember your name and your history, who have supported you through some of the hardest moments of your life, are fighting for their own financial survival right now. After years of pay rises that have not kept up with the cost of living, many are struggling with debt, relying on food banks, and taking second jobs just to get by.
This is not a dispute about politics or power. It is about whether the people who care for you can afford to keep doing the jobs they love.
You Are the Reason We Do This
None of us entered this work for the money. We came into substance use services because we wanted to make a real difference to people’s lives. To people like you. That has not changed.
This is not about walking away. It is about fighting to stay.
When workers are stretched to breaking point financially and mentally, and better-paid jobs keep appearing elsewhere, it is service users who end up paying the real price. Fair pay means we can carry on doing this work properly, and keep doing it for the people who need it.
We are not asking for anything extraordinary. We are asking to be paid enough to stay in the jobs we care about, and to keep providing you with the consistent, experienced support you deserve.
Staff Turnover Harms the People We Support
Continuity of care is not a luxury. For people in recovery, the relationship with a trusted keyworker can be the single most important factor in whether they stay engaged with treatment. When workers leave because the pay is unsustainable, those relationships are broken. Service users have to start over with someone new, progress stalls, and trust has to be built all over again.
Low pay pushes experienced workers out. When they go, the people they supported lose the continuity that matters most in recovery. None of this has to keep happening. But it will, until Change Grow Live management decides to pay its workforce fairly.
Agency Staff Are Not the Answer
Change Grow Live already relies heavily on agency staff to cover gaps left by workers who could not afford to stay. The charity spends a reported £10 million a year on private agency workers. Agency staff do not know you. They do not have your history. They have not built the relationship that makes genuine change possible.
Paying staff properly and keeping them in post is what actually delivers consistent, safe care. There is no shortcut.
We Have Not Stopped Caring
Throughout this dispute, workers have put service user safety first. That will not change. Our argument is with the decisions made by executive management, not with the people we are here to support.
If you want to know more about what is happening and why, you can read about the negotiations and the reality facing frontline staff. The more people understand what is really going on, the sooner we can reach a settlement that works for everyone, including the people who depend on these services.