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Camden New Journal - By PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 17 May 2007

Carers fear cheap agency staff will cut standards

A SCHEME to save £1m a year on home visits to the elderly by axing experienced council staff in favour of cheaper agency workers could slash standards of care, carers claimed this week.
Members of the council’s 82-strong in-house Homecare team approached the New Journal on conditions of confidentiality to protest about cuts to the system by which the council supports people who need help staying in their own homes through washing, dressing, cleaning or shopping.
Carers often also look after the convalescent and those with dementia.
The council’s social care chiefs plan to outsource the generic domestic work on the grounds that their in-house carers are “not providing value for money” and save up to £1m a year by hiring an equivalent number of private agency staff instead.
But the carers said agency staff lacked training and experience in caring for the borough’s elderly.
One said: “You get what you pay for and the training that we’ve been given in-house is top-class, with NVQs in social health and care. That is not a requirement for the agency staff. Saying that we’re not worth the money is actually saying that the clients are not worth the money, and do not deserve this type of care.”
Brian Andrews, of the GMB union, said: “If it is cheaper to pay agency staff and still make a profit then there have to be questions asked. Camden is moving very fast towards being an American-style enabling authority – a contracts management team which employs no one and contracts everything out.”
But Adult Social Care chief Councillor Martin Davies said the new strategy was designed to save money on basic care tasks while developing a specialist team who could provide a better standard of care to the most vulnerable, especially those with dementia.
He said: “The delivery of specialist dementia care is the service which demands a higher level of training and a higher level of skills, and that is the area in which I would expect those carers with those skills to end up. The majority of home care was outsourced in 2001 and more than half is currently provided by outside agencies.
“The only advantage in maintaining an in-house service is if it is providing better value for money.”
“No jobs are at risk,” Cllr Davies added. “All posts are contained within TUPE regulations (which govern the transfer of staff) – who they are employed by might change, that’s all.”

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