Council care homes should be privatised says York business chief

A BUSINESS adviser from York has joined the row over support for the elderly, saying more council care homes should be privatised to save money.

Richard Green, partner at accountants and business advisers Garbutt & Elliott, spoke out over City of York Council’s proposals to put its care services out to tender.

The local review of care facilities has sparked protest petitions at two of the city’s care homes.

But Mr Green said there must be a wider partnership between private care homes and local authorities to cut public sector costs and “end uncertainty for elderly people and their families”.

He said placing more elderly patients in private care homes would save money and produce “continuity of care”.

He warned that the £2 billion set aside by the Government for social care had not been ring-fenced.

As social care had a far wider remit than residential care for the elderly, he doubted whether it would be adequate.

Mr Green said national figures and their experience showed it was “significantly more cost-effective” for councils to send residents to private homes, rather than council-run ones.

He said it cost £824 a week to keep a resident in a council-run care home but only £445 for a local authority to send a resident to a private care home.

He said even where nursing, as well as residential, care was needed, the average private care home cost £698 a week.

Heather McKenzie, of the York branch of Unison which represents care workers, said: “It might be cheaper but that is because generally private staff are paid less, there is less investment in training and the staff turnover is higher, which does not augur well for maintaining or monitoring of standards.

“The private sector always has to have a profit element and costs have to be cut to maintain those profits.

“There are good private sector firms but we all know of instances where private providers have either ceased to trade or where standards of care have become dangerously low.”