Apology Over Norfolk Social Care Fiasco

The politician in charge of Norfolk’s social care services issued a double apology yesterday in the wake of the Careforce home care fiasco.

Chris Mowle, cabinet member for adult social services, said sorry to residents left distressed after the switch to the Stevenage-based firm saw some of the county’s most vulnerable people left home alone, unfed and unwashed because of a string of failures in getting carers to people’s homes.

And, in a separate move, Mr Mowle was also forced to apologise to opposition councillors after it emerged that they had been kept in the dark about moves to strip another firm – Yarmouth-based Briarcare – of their contract to provide home care to 90 people.

The cabinet yesterday agreed to give notice to terminate Briarcare’s contract after a string of problems which included missed visits, problems with invoices and administration difficulties.

In a speech at the cabinet meeting, Mr Mowle said he was keeping a close eye on the Careforce situation to make sure things improved fast, while figures from County Hall showed that there were two complaints over the weekend linked to late visits.

“I did not want today’s cabinet to go by without my personal apology to our residents, whom I feel have been let down badly,” he said.

“It is both unacceptable and a matter of sincere regret that older people in Norfolk have been let down so badly by the provider of these services at the start of this particular contract.

“This is a very serious matter that has caused distress and we are very sorry indeed that this happened. But I think it necessary as well just to remind colleagues that other contracts have worked, and are working well, and through these extra contracts we have left we have been able to provide another 7,000 hours of care every month to Norfolk people.”

Union leaders insisted that if the county council had paid closer attention to the transfer of staff to Careforce, the failures which followed could easily have been avoided.

Jonathan Dunning, branch secretary for Norfolk Unison, said: “All of these things were perfectly avoidable. If Careforce were in a situation where they weren’t 100pc sure which staff they were going to have and they hadn’t got everything right, you should insist on a delay of the transfer by a month or two. The problems were foreseeable and there should be ways to get around that.

“This highlights the danger of externalising the in-house service. Saving Norfolk County Council a bit of money when it carries this level of risk is not in the interests of clients,” he said. “We understand this is the biggest contract Careforce have won and they had not anticipated winning three contracts.

“What scrutiny was there that they could cope with the scale of the new work coming to them on a single day?”

Mr Mowle said Norfolk was second only to Birmingham for the amount of care it delivered, while changes to focus in-house care on Norfolk First Support, an intensive six-week reablement programme when a person comes out of hospital, had been a “massive success” and meant 51pc of people no longer needed further care.

“Given the demographic demands we face, this really is a very good step which is already enabling more people to return home from hospital and live safely and independently in their own homes,” he added.

“Where standards of care are concerned, let me be very clear: we expect the same standards of care from all care providers whether they are independent providers or services that we deliver ourselves.”