IN REPLY to some of the letters regarding home care assistants I hold my head up high to say I work as a home care assistant.

To D Hirst from Holmfirth: Kirklees has a complaints procedure. All complaints are fully investigated. If you contact your home care office they will send you a complaints procedure and it will be pre-paid. They also have a compliments procedure should anyone require to praise us!

To Disgusted, New Mill: I have NVQ2 in social care and NVQ3 in social care. For me to obtain these I burned the midnight oil because I had them to do in my own time. I went to college to do my NVQ3 and paid for the course out of my own money, not Kirklees.

To C Smith, of Meltham: Time spent at each client’s home depends on individual’s assessment; the assessment is for your needs and can be anything from five minutes and up. Kirklees will be bringing in electronic monitoring for home care staff. This will mean fairer charging, for example, for every minute the home care spend in the client’s home, they will be charged. This also means home care staff will be paid for every minute worked.

T L Sykes, Honley: No, I’m not a binman. I’m a home care assistant who works in all four seasons of the weather, walking the streets visiting clients’ homes like binmen. I do work bank holidays, even Christmas Day. I do not leave commodes unemptied for two or three weeks at a time like the binmen leave my bin unemptied.

Please do not judge us home care assistants; we often go above our call of duty. We are often in the firing line of physical/verbal abuse from clients and families. But we all love our jobs and work at very short notice in very difficult situations and areas. I will hold my head up high because I am a home care assistant and proud of what I do.

A very happy Kirklees home care assistant