BABS Wild, manager of the White Horse Care Trust home at Wootton Bassett, reckons she has the best job in the world.

"I started in the care business when my children were small by serving tea on Sundays at a home for the elderly," she said.

"I realised that looking after people was a what I wanted to do.

"Now thanks to the Trust I have a diploma in management." Babs, a 48-year-old divorced mother of two, supervises the care of three men who have severe learning difficulties and challenging behaviour.

One also has Down's Syndrome, another has other mental health problems.

But most of their neighbours in Home Ground, Wootton Bassett, treat them as just blokes who live in the street. So do many of the customers at the pub where, accompanied by members of the staff, they enjoy a drink.

"We try to take no notice of the few who are rude to them or patronise them," she said.

Babs complains about just one factor of her job: the pay levels. "Most of our staff are being paid at least £1 an hour less than NHS staff, and I know people with family responsibilities who have had to leave because they needed to earn more. But that's not the Trust's fault," she said.

"At the end of the day it is the responsibility of Government to ensure there's adequate funding for the kind of care our residents deserve."