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Camden News - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 8 May 2008

Care homes ‘could go private’

SOCIAL services chiefs have admitted that the management of Camden’s council-run care homes for the elderly could end up in private hands.
The Town Hall plans to rebuild Wellesley Home for the Elderly in Gospel Oak and build a new bigger home in Maitland Park.
To pay for the work, it will sell off Branch Hill and St Margaret’s care homes in Hampstead and the Ingestre Road home in Kentish Town.
Conservative social services chief Councillor Martin Davies said on Tuesday that the council could build and run the homes itself – but the preferred option was to rope in a private operator to limit risks and costs. Under the suggested strategy, the chosen contractor would build and, similar to a private finance initiative, run the care homes until a lease agreement expires.
Cllr Davies said: “With any project, we have to look at value for money. If we were looking at the more expensive options, we’d have to see in what other areas we might save the money.”
Cllr Davies was speaking as Camden launched a consultation programme to find out whether residents object to private running of the new homes or whether the service should continue to run with the traditional in-house model.
The Town Hall said it had come up with a preferred choice before asking residents for legal reasons and to add transparency.
Form fillers will be told that the cost of keeping the entire service in-house will be £18 million more expensive than picking the council’s chosen strategy.

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