Well over 400,000 elderly and disabled people in Britain rely on home care, and many of the care workers are from other parts of the world: Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Some were highly qualified professionals in their own countries.

As the population ages, these care workers are providing an ever more vital service, yet their voices are rarely heard. Blanche Girouard accompanies some of them on their rounds to hear their stories.

We meet Ziad, once a lecturer in Economics at Damascus University. Forced to flee the war in Syria, he was unable to find work in academia and has become a carer to an elderly Pakistani Muslim. Vedah, a former nurse from Zambia, has experienced racism from clients, but still likes her work: putting a smile on a client’s face, she says, is her greatest reward. And there’s Magda, who left her children behind in Poland when she came to Britain 13 years ago. Originally a music therapist, she became a live-in carer – a highly demanding role that left little room for her to live her own life. But it led to an unexpected offer.