Borders Council Urged Not To Take ‘Cheap And Nasty’ Option Of Home Care

AS bids are considered this week from private operators for a large chunk of the home care currently delivered by Scottish Borders Council, a trade union boss has urged the local authority not to make decisions based purely on cutting costs.

More than two years since SBC’s executive decided to gradually increase the amount of care hours it purchases from external providers – from around one third to more than a half – the tenders are currently being assessed and new contracts will begin in May.

Ahead of an announcement on the winners and losers, SBC social work director Andrew Lowe has written to the 1,500 plus Borderers who currently receive home care to explain the impending changes.

In that letter, Mr Lowe states: “In future we will need to provide much more home care and a lot of it will be provided by agencies outside the council with whom we have contracts.

“In preparation for this, we have been holding a tendering process in order to secure the best services for you at the best price to the council.”

The reference to “best price” has perturbed Rab Stewart, regional organiser of the Unite union which represents many of the council’s army of mainly female home carers and which has successfully advocated on their behalf for equal pay deals, bringing them into line with their male counterparts.

“The mention of best price infers the council may be looking for the cheapest and nastiest in terms of external provision, instead of ‘best value’ for the money provided,” said Mr Stewart.

“Our union has spent six years reaching a position where home carers are now being treated in an equal and unbiased way, yet the cause of these inequalities was a tendering process built on driving costs down.

“SBC has now thankfully distanced itself from that regime and we are now collectively looking for a period of stability within the care sector, both in-house [SBC] and external.

“The problem with cost-driven tenders, however, is that training may be skimped and clients may suffer while the lack of a proper rate of pay means provision will be supplied by people who do not have the heart for the job.

“There should be no situation where the rate for providing an external service is lower than that which exists within the council, taking account of proper holidays, sick pay and pension provision.

“I strongly urge the council to look at total best value for the employer, client and employee. A purely cost-driven process will not cater for this.”

In his letter, Mr Lowe explains that all the bids are being scored against a range of quality standards “to make sure we select excellent home care providers for the people of the Borders”.

He goes on: “Although there will be some new arrangements for home care services in the next few months, we do not anticipate any immediate change to your services. If there are to be I will make sure you know what changes are proposed and that you are fully involved.

“I recognise that change is unsettling, but all of these changes are planned to ensure we are well placed to further develop high quality care provision in the Borders and increase capacity to support people at home in line with predicted demand.”

That rise in demand is acknowledged in the recent report on SBC by the Social Work Inspection Agency which predicts the number of people of pensionable age in the Borders will rise by 26 per cent by 2014 and 35 per cent by 2024.

The average projected increase for Scotland is 17 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.

A total of 10,262 hours of home care are currently delivered in the region, with around 30 per cent (3,030 hours) by the external sector, to 400 clients.

SBC makes up the balance with 7,233 hours, which it provides to 1,046 clients.

Around 65 people have care packages, some of which are delivered by SBC and some of which, such as shopping and housework, by external providers.

Meetings of SBC’s home carers, who will be asked to sign new contracts, are being held this week.

“With more reliable terms and conditions … this will help us attract and keep good staff to work in this important role,” says Mr Lowe in his letter to clients.

He told TheSouthern yesterday it was helpful to put the changes in context.

“All current service users who receive a service from SBC will continue to do so, as will those supported by the external sector.

“The increase of hours delivered externally will be done on a gradual basis for new packages of care only. This will take place within an expanding home care service as more people are supported to remain at home.”