PLANS to outsource the remaining council-run long-term home care in Rhondda Cynon Taf to private providers has been called for reconsideration by decision makers.
Three councillors have used the “call-in” procedure to get the council to look again at the plans which drew opposition from trade unions and opposition councillors.
Plaid Cymru councillor Karen Morgan, independent councillor Cathy Lisles and Conservative councillor Karl Johnson have signed the call-in which will go before a special meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday, October 31.
They’ve signed it because of concerns over a lack of consultation, alack of scrutiny before the decision was taken, a lack of information over any potential savings, the need to consider the positive and negative impacts and the need to hold decision makers to account.
The reasons for the call-in include “that there has been no consultation with staff, trade unions, service users or the public prior to cabinet adopting a major change in policy, i.e. commissioning 100% of the long-term homecare service, despite the council’s public participation strategy claiming it values the users voice and the reasons for doing so being good practice.”
Another reason is that “There has been no opportunity for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee or the Community Services Scrutiny Committee to pre-scrutinise the proposal before cabinet made the decision. Until the cabinet member put out a press statement a few days before cabinet considered the proposal no other members knew that such a matter was even being considered.”
A third reason is that: “There is no precise information given as to the potential for budget savings, however the proposal has been described as cost effective.
The councillors calling it in also said that “there is a need to gain a better understanding of the potential impact of the decision both positive and negative,” and that “there is an obvious need to hold cabinet to account and pre-scrutinise decisions that affect our constituents and staff.”
On Monday, October 23, cabinet approved the plans to outsource the remaining 10% of its long term home care to private providers with all care packages kept and eligible staff employed by Support@Home to provide long-term home care transferring to the new service provider, which will award a new contract under transfer of undertakings (protection of employment) – or TUPE – arrangements
It agreed to the protection of membership for staff within the local government pension scheme to be factored into the procurement
process to be taken forward, the recognition of trade unions to be factored into the procurement process to be taken forward and that no compulsory redundancies are taken forward through the implementation of these proposals.
Cabinet also agreed to keep all its reablement and intermediate care in house.
At the cabinet meeting on Monday, Councillor Gareth Caple, the council’s cabinet member for health and social care, said: “This revised approach aims to achieve a sustainable model that in no way reduces the availability of the service, rather it would enable long-term commissioning arrangements to be improved.”
He said the council would continue to support people to live as independently as possible by continuing to provide the intermediate/reablement service. He acknowledged it’s a “difficult decision” and that he is “acutely aware of the concerns raised which are being addressed.”
But he said it would see them continue to deliver all intermediate and reablement care in house, make the sector more resilient and that it should improve staff recruitment and retention and he was satisfied that it would have no impact on the level of care.
