Council accused of backdoor care home privatisation

THE SNP is accusing the Lib Dem led Highland Council administration of trying to privatise Grant House and other care homes in the region through the back door.

The Nationalists fear that the council may be trying to backtrack on plans to build five new care homes for the elderly in the region, including the one in Grantown.

The concerns were sparked following the release earlier this week of the administration’s budget consultation.

Among its long list of proposals the council is seeking residents’ views on whether it should continue to run care homes itself or allow the voluntary and private sectors to take control.

The document points out that 83 per cent of care home places are currently provided at lower cost by the private and voluntary sector. The remaining 17 per cent are in 18 council-run care homes.

It currently costs around £819-a-week for a place in a local authority facility compared to between £464 and £540 in the private sector.

The paper states: “Care homes are independently inspected against the same standards whether in the public, private, voluntary sectors and inspection reports show similar quality in the Highland.” The administration has estimated that they could save £2.9 million in theory to 2013 if the council provision was restricted to rural areas where private firms were unlikely to run care homes.

The SNP group has consistently opposed privatisation and, when in power, put in place measures to build five costed additional council-run homes now put on hold by the current administration.

They are calling on Councillor Michael Foxley, leader of the Independent-Lib-Dem/Labour coalition, to give a straight answer to whether the council is considering privatisation.

SNP Group Social Work Spokesperson, Councillor Dave Fallows said: “They seem to be trying to use the Citizen’s Panel as a license to duck their own responsibilities.

“In this case the Lib Dem political leader is either very confused or is deliberately misleading the public over the issue of care home privatisation..

“The SNP group would like him to give an honest and straight answer to this question: ‘Is any privatisation of council run care homes under consideration or not’?”.

He added: “We are keen on reassuring our older people on care rather than creating uncertainty.” The SNP point out that in press statements made in early March, Councillor Foxley said the privatisation option had been dismissed by them.

“I think the SNP group need to get real,” said Councillor Foxley, however. “We are asking the public what the important issues are for them. We have to make almost £60 million of savings over the next three years.

“There are a lot of painful decisions to be made.” He stressed no decisions would be made until the public exercise was completed.

The official hit-list has more than 70 possible budget cuts – amounting to savings of £41.9 million..

A further £36 million of cuts still need to be found by the local authority over the coming three years.

Amongst the options being explored are cutting back on the number of schools. The move could impact on the strath where there are a couple of schools with small rolls.

The paper states: “We know that 65 per cent (121 primary schools) need improvements to the buildings. With fewer schools, and an agreed acceptable distance to travel to school, we could offer a better learning environment with a broader curriculum and specialist teaching.

“An alternative could be the same number of schools but with 12 per cent less funding in real terms for each school.” Potential savings identified by the administration could amount to £1.5 million over two years and £5.5 million over five years. Other proposals include closing some of the 12 council swimming pools; potentially shutting some of the council-owned museums and art galleries and local libraries. No facilities in the strath are specifically named in the consultation paper unlike in Inverness where six community centres, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, and the Floral Hall are referred to.

Other suggested cash-saving measures include street lights being switched off, fewer bin collections and more expensive school dinners and music lessons.

The proposals are part of the 27-page budget consultation document made in response to the region’s worst financial crisis for 50 years.

It is being used to brief the public and the new citizen’s panel on the scale of cuts needed to help reduce the council’s spending.

The consultation running until June will seek people’s views on each of the proposals.

Councillors agreed earlier this year that the public should be made aware of the financial challenges facing the authority and around 14,000 letters were sent to households across the Highlands encouraging people to serve on the panel.

So far just over 2,000 people have indicated a willingness to take part in the consultation which will cost £22,000.

Budget leader, Councillor David Alston, (Lib Dem) warned in February that the council’s “extreme” financial problems could not be solved by trimming around the edges and would involve a fundamental review of the council’s operations.

The Lib-Dems stressed the authority was leading the way in Scotland by being open with the public.

“Members of the public are not being asked to set the budget but we are seriously looking for views on these proposals,” a spokesman said.

The Budget Consultation document can be viewed at: http://www.highland.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/70E6E385-CC58-42A5-93A6-9421DF0C60E4/0/budgetconsultation.pdf