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Report blasts Walsall home care auction
Walsall councillors have been presented with a damning report which calls for an urgent review of how home care is provided in the borough and has strongly criticised the use of an e-auction to secure the lowest possible price for care.
The Domiciliary Care Working Group report says that e-auctions must never be used again in commission care services. The Community Care Act which came into law in 1990, transferred funding for care services to local councils and also allowed private companies to bid as providers for what at one time was known as home help. Local authorities use e-auctions to procure items like furniture and consumables at the best possible price, but the decision by Walsall Council in 2008 to offer home care contracts to the companies that undercut the most has been described as “disastrous” by a leading councillor.
Lead member of the group, Councillor Tim Oliver said: “The e-auction is a method of driving down to the lowest bidder, and makes some sense in getting the best deal. But it has showed itself to be disastrous in terms of social care delivery in Walsall”.
Problems should have been apparent when reputable and proven organisations such as Sue Ryder pulled out of the auction after realising that they could not provide adequate care for the ever decreasing payment for the contract. The cost per hour for care in Walsall fell to £10.61 whilst the average cost in neighbouring authorities was £13.00 per hour.
In May last year, it was discovered that one of the companies granted a contract, Complete Care Services Ltd based in Willenhall, instructed workers to operate in strict half hour slots regardless of the needs of the service user and time-sheet evidence showed that some care workers seemed to be in two places at the same time. The contract was eventually suspended.
The report is also highly critical of the awarding “block” contracts and “spot” contracts. Block contracts usually operate in each geographical area and the company is obliged to provide a specific amount of care hours over the year. Spot contract are used to provide urgent or unexpected care. Without an adequate assessment of requirements, the working group found that some companies in areas where the agreed numbers of hours were not required, but still charged for at a fixed rate, the same companies charged for spot contracts in other areas where need was greater.
The report to the Social Care and Inclusion Scrutiny Panel also calls for more effective monitoring of service provision and an action plan to guard against any further fraud, together with a contingency plan for other contracts being withdrawn.
Leader of the council, Mike Bird said: “E-auction is something that is becoming more prevalent but is probably best used for things that are tangible objects. Social care is the biggest budget spend we have next to education. We have to give people the service they require but at the best possible value.”
This latest “disaster” comes as Walsall council tax payers have pay back £2.8million to the EU due to incompetent accounting and two more Walsall secondary schools are placed in special measures by Ofsted.