Scottish Care has issued a statement relating to the BBC Panorama programme and its research highlighting that many care at home providers were handing back contracts because they could not afford to deliver them.

The story is described on the BBC news website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39321579

“Sadly this research does not come as any surprise to us.

We know that a good number of our providers have handed back work as what they have been offered by the local authorities and Integrated Joint Boards simply could not enable them to deliver dignified, safe and adequate care. They would rather lose the work than drive standards even lower.

We are still in Scotland dominated by a political culture which tries to get the most amount of care for the cheapest price. This is a shameful way for the care of our vulnerable older people to be delivered. We have to find a better way of purchasing care than a model which is driving good organisations out of business.

A lot has been said of the funding for the Scottish Living Wage and this has indeed been welcomed, but it is on its own never going to be the answer to a critically underfunded sector. Indeed in practice this has not had the positive effect we had hoped for as 9 out of 10 of our care at home providers are struggling to recruit staff as competition with better paid sectors like hospitality and retail increases.

More pessimistically a survey which has just closed shows that 1 in 5 of our care at home providers are not confident being in business this time next year.

We cannot continue to allow this crisis to grow as the people who suffer the most will be those who have the least ability to speak out.”

Last Updated on 20th March 2017 by Scottish Care