Domiciliary care providers in Cardiff and the Vale are asking Cardiff Council to reconsider a decision which they say would “threaten to cause Chaos for the provision of Care of the elderly in Cardiff.”
They told us:
“Many vulnerable elderly people receiving a care at home service and the care workers that provide those services at Cardiff Council’s expense are expected to have their service provision seriously disrupted as Cardiff Council seeks to make swinging cuts and organizational changes in the way the care is provided. The association also claims that no proper consultation process has been entered into with either service users or the providers of care services. In a series of hastily arranged meetings between individual current providers and Council officials, companies were asked to co operate in the voluntary hand over of their valuable businesses to other companies. “No one in their right mind would do that” members claim.
“At a meeting of the Cardiff Council’s Executive Committee on 4th Nov, plans to cut the number of agencies currently providing care at home services to the elderly from the existing 56 to 11 were agreed although not all members of the committee were present.
“The council has recently undergone a lengthy and expensive tendering process in an attempt to reduce their costs of providing care at home for the County’s frail elderly. Since 1993 when the Community Care Act was implemented there has been an increasing reliance on low cost provision from the private sector through “Out-sourcing” arrangements as the Council’s own expensive service provision has been reduced.
“The executive report indicates that the total cost of providing home care for the elderly is in the order of $12.5m per year and that the proposed changes will reduce this by approximately $1.5m in a full year. However the report also goes on to say that the payment due to the firm of accountants engaged by the council to assist them in the tender process will offset the net savings in 2010/11.
“6 years ago the Council undertook a similar exercise awarding just 4 providers what the Council termed “Block Contracts”. It very quickly became apparent that it was impossible to force the workforce to change agencies and work for the companies awarded contracts. There is a general shortage of care workers due to poor pay and conditions for the industry as a whole and the block providers were unable to recruit staff in sufficient numbers without a transfer of workers from other agencies. Consequently the Council never fulfilled their promise to commission the number of hours they had indicated. This left the Block providers in a situation of having to provide care at a price based on volume that was never purchased. We anticipate that this is highly likely to be the same this time.
“It will be extremely difficult for the new providers to recruit and train staff in sufficient numbers to service the requirements of the new contracts. All members have reported that many staff and service users have been in tears, with the vast majority claiming they are adamant they will not change employers or allow new service providers to deliver their care respectively. Customers are not only concerned about the care workers but they have also built up excellent relationships with managers as well. Under the present arrangements a client only has to ask for a worker to be changed without giving any reason, and this is done. Association members are puzzled that this right has now been withdrawn and the Council have stated clearly in their report that service users have no right of choice. Even if this is the case legally it is very far from best practice.
“Since the price of the proposed services is lower than is currently being paid it is very unlikely that anyone will be able to attract staff by offering them better terms and conditions than they currently enjoy whilst remaining financially viable. Cutting price usually equates to a reduction in quality not an improvement and the association claims that the Council’s expectations are completely unrealistic.
“Care companies invest a large amount of money in recruiting and training personnel to deliver their services. “We build up rounds of work for our staff which suit their availability and provide continuity to our service users. We are very confident that our existing staff will remain loyal to their existing employers. They also appreciate that it is outrageous to expect us to hand over our entire business which represent years of work and investment to companies who are seeking to take over our readymade business without cost to themselves” If this were to happen not only would it leave many companies with no business but with financial obligations they would be unable to meet. This is a deplorable situation after so many years of loyal service to the council who consistently claim to work in partnership with providers.
“One of the companies awarded a contract has only been trading in domiciliary care provision for a little over one year and certainly until recently operated from a dismountable building in the grounds of a nursing home. Another has had an office in Cardiff for just 6 months. This compares with some of the existing providers who have a history of up to 18 years of reliable provision of services with well established professional offices. “The public can view the CSSIW website and obtain the inspection report on any agency that has been trading in Wales. As members of the association we strongly recommend that people do this”
“Members insist that it will be very difficult for anyone to take over their work without the transfer of the staff. There is considerable confusion over whether the provisions of the European laws covering the transfer of employees with contracts will be applicable (TUPE). If they are not, employees would certainly lose some employment rights if they were to take up employment with another company. If the laws do apply it is doubtful if the new companies will be able to sustain their obligations to equal employment conditions for staff at the lower prices which in turn will result in financial instability and a risk of the new companies going out of business. This has already proved to be the case in many other Local Authority areas.
“The whole process went horribly wrong when service users received letters from the Council on their doorsteps on the morning of Saturday 30th October before the companies providing the services were aware of anything. This caused mass panic amongst the staff and made the managers of the agencies appear as if they were deliberately trying to hide information from employees.
“The association also wants to absolutely refute a claim alleged to have been made by the Corporate Director of Social services Ms Neelam Bhardwaja, in the South Wales Echo. It is stated that Ms Bhardwaja said, “Care companies are only staying at assignments for 15 minutes when they should be there for 45minutes.”
“There are of course rare occasions when due to inclement weather, medical emergencies at a previous clients home or road traffic accidents it is not always possible to stay for the allocated time. There are also occasions when clients ask us to leave early, for example if they have visitors, but we do not believe that we ever deliberately defraud anyone.” The association claim that such a comment “clearly reflects a lack of understanding of the complexities of this kind of service delivery .” Members also claim that the introduction of Electronic time monitoring, which is actually already in use by a number of current providers, will not do anything to eliminate these situations. It will, however impose an additional cost of personnel on the council as they seek to police the new arrangements and add 3p per call to the cost to the agency, plus the cost of a telephone line if there is not one already in situ at the house. All these costs will indirectly be borne by the tax payer.
“We want to make it very clear that all our training and National Vocational Qualifications in care are based on the underpinning values of Choice, Dignity and Respect for our service users. We are absolutely certain that the Council’s Proposals as outlined have no regard for any of these. Under the new arrangements, service users could be forced to accept whole new teams of people after years of building relationships with their care staff and their managers.” The association claims that they will do everything within their power to resist and frustrate the changes and protect the interests of their clients, staff, managers and companies. “We are certainly NOT going to co operate with anyone who is seeking to rob us of our companies and many years of hard work and financial investment. The proposals are clearly neither fair nor reasonable. We certainly hope that the council will rethink these ill thought out, cruel and disruptive proposals which reflect a complete disregard for service users, staff and company owners.” As far as we are concerned it is “business as usual” and we can assure all our customers and staff of our continued support.”
