Councillor claims Fife Council has sacrificed care homes in favour of plans for Madras College

Fife Council’s care homes have been sacrificed so the local authority can press ahead with a new Madras College in St Andrews, an independent councillor has claimed.

Councillor Andrew Rodger, who voted against the proposal to transfer Fife Council’s residential care home service to the private or not-for-profit sector, said Liberal Democrat colleagues in north-east Fife were determined to see the new school built.

He accused the Lib Dems of backing the proposal — passed by six votes to five — so capital savings could be made to protect the Madras project and win votes.

“We have to ask why are we doing this and why are we doing it now,” he said. “The Lib Dems are desperate to build a school to replace Madras and capital will be required to do that.”

While members of the SNP/Lib Dem administration voted in favour of the proposal at last week’s social work and health committee meeting, Mr Rodger and four Labour councillors opposed the move.

The opposition hopes the decision can be overturned, and is seeking a full council meeting.

Mr Rodger said handing residential care to the private sector was the “easy option,” and the council should have taken note of how other local authorities operated. He questioned the savings to be made.

According to a social work and health report in October, the saving to the council would amount to £1.25 million. However, the report stated that, “Funding of a quality assurance framework for the service and an increase in resources for contracts,” would eat into that saving.

Mr Rodger continued, “They are taking the easy option and older people are being hung out to dry. The difference between the private sector and us keeping it in-house is £1.25 million.”

He continued, “I have just phoned up Angus Council. They provide direct services and they are going to build a supported housing complex.
Angus

“This is a small council who are prepared to go and build in-house. I have to ask why a council like Angus can go ahead and do this and we can’t.

“I’ve also spoken to Aberdeen and they are going to continue to provide in-house services for residential care.

“Fife Council has not done its homework and has not looked at other councils to see how they are meeting the challenge.

“Let’s be quite clear, there will be a cost of handing it over to the private sector, but this seems to be the way forward for the Lib Dems and the Tories.”

Councillor Tim Brett, Lib Dem chairman of the social work and health committee, all but admitted capital had been protected for education projects.

He said, “The council is the only organisation that will be able to build new schools. With care homes, other people can offer to build new care homes for us. That’s the difference.”

However, Mr Brett accused Mr Rodger of initiating a “political knock-about” for “cheap political points.”

He said, “By making this decision (about care homes) we will actually be able to look after more older people — 70 to 80 more older people than we can look after at present … I think that’s what older people deserve, rather that the political knock-about that Andrew is getting us into.

“As for Angus Council, I don’t think that’s an analogy that can be made. They are building supported housing and I would like to see that happening in Fife.

“We need supported housing — it’s vitally important. We have got sheltered housing, but we can provide even more support for people.”