IMPACT “will be the vehicle to instill pride in the social care profession,” according to the union’s deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan. He was speaking at the annual general meeting of IMPACT’s social care workers last Saturday, where union organiser Keivan Jackson launched IMPACT’s ‘Pride In Our Profession’ campaign.

The initiative aims to identify and unite IMPACT members working in social care, and then move on to a second phase called ‘protecting our profession.’ Keivan also presented the preliminary results of an IMPACT survey of 2,122 social care workers.

The findings, including some startling statistics around assaults on social care staff, will be published in the union’s Work & Life magazine next month.

Kevin Callinan, who previously worked as national secretary for the area, gave the meeting an overview of the challenges facing social care workers and detailed some of the major victories IMPACT has secured for staff in the sector. Assistant general secretary Chris Cully gave an update on CORU and placed a particular emphasis on TUSLA.