"Wages are low, training is poor and there is a high turnover of staff who are so rushed they are unable to provide good quality care"
This is the reality behind the City of Edinburgh Council's use of low cost, private care companies according to campaign groups that have been documenting the standard of privatised care services.
The policy of opening up care and support services for vulnerable disabled people to the private sector through competitive tendering was thrown into the spotlight two weeks ago when the Lib Dem / SNP administration's plan to put the services for nearly 800 people out to tender collapsed. This tender process is now being investigated by way of an 'external evaluation' process which is due to report back in late January.
Key to the argument put forward by Lib Dem Health and Social Care Convener, Paul Edie, was the assertion that current providers are too expensive and that the tender process established "tested market rates" some as low as £12.65 an hour.
Itay Idan, spokesperson for the Support Workers' Action Network (SWAN Edinburgh) pointed out that
"the companies that the Council intended to award contracts of £12.65 an hour to pay their support workers less than half that amount - little over minimum wage".
Despite this Cllr Edie has consistently argued that there are 17 care providers in Edinburgh currently providing quality services for even less that £12.65 per hour.
This claim has been thrown into question after SWAN Edinburgh - a group campaigning against the current tender process - went to seek information from the Edinburgh Homecare Campaign - a group that has been documenting the effects of tendering homecare services to private companies for over two years. Danny Oliver, a support worker from SWAN, told us
"Paul Edie claims that good quality services can and are being provided by companies for less than £12.65 an hour. When we put this to Marlyn from Edinburgh Homecare Campaign she showed us pages and pages of individual cases showing that these low cost private companies are letting down their service-users".
Marlyn Tweedie, of the Homecare Campaign continues
"We are alarmed at the increasing use of the private sector in the care of our elderly and disabled citizens.
The care may be cheaper but the quality is sacrificed.
We do not blame the frontline staff. They have an impossible task. Visits are piled on, staff are so rushed they're unable to provide good quality care.
Wages are low, training is poor and there is a high turnover of staff.
As the Panorama programme "Britain's Homecare Scandal" said it is "wilful shambolism"
Councillors need to ask themselves why they have contracted out care to companies which were heavily criticised in that programme.
Companies such as Carewatch who recently told their staff they would have to take a wage cut and who allowed the undercover reporter to work 14 shifts before her clearance came through.
We have consistently learned of service-users whose care has been poor - visits missed, frequently late, staff not knowing what the tasks are etc".Mr.Oliver of SWAN Edinburgh stated;
"We have been shown individual testimony including an 89 year old man who went without being washed for 3 weeks and a 90 year old woman with dementia who was frequently left sitting in her chair all night when staff failed to turn up. These examples are not exceptions. There are many, many more. This is the kind of care Paul Edie is so keen to roll out to people with learning disabilities, mental health problems and physical disabilities.
It is time that people look at what has been done to care of the elderly in this city and what Cllr Edie is trying to do to other care and support services and we believe it is time for Cllr Edie to reconsider his position in the light of this appalling track record".
At the full Council meeting this Thursday there will be both protests outside and deputations within the meeting calling for a halt to funding cuts and the privatisation of services.
