[Edinburgh-carecampaign] SWAN website and email list

[Danny]

The campaign by Edinburgh Support Workers' Action Network (SWAN) against the tendering process for care and support services is continuing ahead of a crucial Council finance meeting on the 21st January.
For further info go to our website - www.swanedinburgh.org.uk or to recieve regular updates email us at swanedinburgh at yahoo.co.uk and ask to be put on our mailing list.

I have copied below a recent press release done with the help of the Homecare campaign.
Happy New Year!
Danny


THE REALITY BEHIND LOW COST CARE COMPANIES CONTRACTED BY EDINBURGH COUNCIL



Support  Workers' Action Network   -   Press Release                      15th Dec 2009



"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 (17th Dec) there
will be both protests outside and deputations within the meeting
calling for a halt to funding cuts and the privatisation of services.





      
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