Plymouth City Council’s care plans blasted by another union
A UNION is calling on Labour councillors to back down over plans to outsource the care of elderly people. The GMB union warned yesterday that moves to privatise some home care would result in a poorer service.
Plymouth City Council announced this week that it is considering a raft of reforms in the way it looks after vulnerable elderly people.
Among the measures, it is preparing to outsource home care services and care for people with dementia instead of maintaining them in-house.
Cllr Mark Lowry, the city’s Cabinet member for finance, said: “By 2030 we will see a 40 per cent increase in the number of people who will require support in their later years.
“The Government needs to stop sitting on the fence and come up with some proposals to fund elderly care.”
He said that unless something was done most of the council budget would go on adult social care within 15 years.
Cllr Ian Bowyer, the Conservative finance spokesman on the council, said: “In opposition Labour was keen to criticise our plans for adult social care. The boot is on the other foot now.”
He said he supported some of the cost-cutting measures proposed by Labour, including proposals to close the outdated Lakeside residential care home in Ernesettle.
“If we do nothing we will quickly run into a position where all the council’s resources are spent on adult social care. There are no easy solutions. What the State can do for you in old age will be much reduced.”
Yesterday The Herald reported how the Unite union had challenged the plan.
Now, Kevin Mason, regional organiser for the GMB union, has also called for a rethink. He said: “The council-run service is efficient and provides high quality. Service users don’t want to go across to the private sector.”
The GMB represents about 60 per cent of the council’s 120 domiciliary care workers. “The private sector is only out for one thing – the profit margin,” Mr Mason said.
He predicted that a private sector organisation would first look to cut the amount of time domiciliary care workers spend in people’s homes.
And he said the council service had already introduced efficiency measures which had not been given time to demonstrate their effectiveness.
He said the GMB would be writing to all Labour councillors urging them not to outsource domiciliary care.
The city’s Cabinet will be asked at its meeting to next week to approve the outsourcing of “reablement” services.
From next month it will be seeking to re-tender all existing domiciliary care services in the independent sector, worth £13million a year, to include the reablement service, which helps people to recover from surgery or serious illness.
It will also begin consultations on closing the 29-bed Lakeside home and the future of three day centres, REATCH and Woodfield in Whitleigh and St George’s in Stonehouse.
