Time running out for online homecare auctions
Time running out for online homecare auctions
By Jennifer Roberts
www.caringforyourbusiness.co.uk
Scotland appears to have taken the first step to end local authority online bidding auctions for homecare contracts.
Holyrood’s Local Government Committee is to look into the controversial practice following Panorama’s undercover investigation of homecare in Britain.
Duncan McNeil, committee convenor, said one of his constituents had likened the tendering process to ‘buying cheap jewellery on a TV shopping channel’.
The commonly named ‘e-auctions’ involves firms bidding against each other over the internet to deliver homecare services for the lowest price.
Panorama showed how one company – in South Lanarkshire – won a contract by making the lowest bid of £9.95 an hour.
The committee has agreed to interview representatives from South Lanarkshire Council and the Care Commission. Its findings will go to the Scottish Government.
The United Kingdom Home Care Association (UKHCA) was told of the committee investigation at its Scotland Conference in Edinburgh on April 6.
Leading officials of the UKHCA and the Care Commission expressed concern about the ‘lack of balance’ in the Panorama programme, ‘Britain’s Homecare Scandal’.
They told the conference that the BBC could have made a greater effort to highlight the many positives in an industry serving hundreds of thousands of people in Britain.
Jennifer Roberts
www.caringforyourbusiness.co.uk
Roberts Consultants, specialists in developing homecare businesses
