THOUSANDS of vulnerable elderly people who rely on home help could see the quality of their care plummet, Liverpool support agencies warned last night. Domiciliary care agencies fear hundreds of home helps will walk out in search of better-paid work, after the city council drew up a contract which they say cuts their pay by 30%. One agency has already refused to sign the new contract unless town hall officials agree to re-negotiate the terms of the deal. Around 8,000 elderly and infirm people across the city rely on daily help from home carers who give vital assistance with cleaning, washing, dressing, and shopping. Insiders fear staff shortages could mean families may be left without support, or at best suffer a dramatically reduced quality in services – putting the burden of care back on to family, friends or neighbours. One care sector source told the Daily Post last night: “If something isn’t done, the quality of care will go into quick decline because there will be a mass walk-out of carers. “Not only will carers see a pay cut under the new contracts, but their hours will not be secure. “They will not know from one day to the next if there is work for them. It will be like going back to the days when dockers had to queue for work every morning. “On the face of it, the council is making big savings, but, in reality, it (the council) will pay in the long run.” The council insists it is trying to offer the best value for money for the city's council tax payers. The row erupted after town hall officials set out its new care package for thousands of the city’s most vulnerable people. Four of the city’s five existing care providers, who employ around 900 carers, have been offered the new contracts, along with five other new companies. The existing providers offered new contracts are Lyndhurst, Local Solutions, Homecarers and Merseycare Julianne and one of them has refused to sign.. The Daily Post understands the other three are in discussions with the city council in a bid to win a compromise. Instead of paying for the service in blocks of time, the council will pay by the hour, and will stop paying for carers’ travel time from July 1. It will also stop paying capacity hours, which means carers will not be paid if their client dies or is taken into hospital. Carers will be employed on zero hour contracts, rather than being guaranteed a set number of hours each month. Judy Boyle, 58, a saleswoman from Old Swan, said she was concerned about the future of her 86-year-old mother’s care. She said: “My mother loves her carers. They are like part of her family, and if it wasn’t for them, she would have had to move to a nursing home long ago. “The carers are so dedicated, but it is a tough job for them. They don’t get paid much as it is. Why should they stay in such a demanding job if they get paid less and do not have any security.” One source within the care sector said last night: “The contracts were put out to tender and when they were offered, the care providers were told the terms and given a week to sign. “It was a choice between refusing to sign and effectively going out of business immediately or signing and trying to negotiate with the council from the inside.” Another care sector source said: “The care providers have been offered less hours then before, so already that reduces the amount of work for carers. “Without travelling time pay and capacity pay, their wages will be reduced significantly. There are concerns this will mean carers will go away and find more secure jobs, where they are paid better. “Why should they stay in a stressful job when they can get paid more working as a supermarket cashier? “The council used to work under a similar system before 2001 and it didn’t work. If extra clients came in, it was harder to put a care package in place, be-cause companies had to hire car- ers as and when the work came in. “When it went over to the block payment system, things improved. Staff had a set number of hours, they stayed longer and employers were able to give them better training. “It is unbelievable that the council want to go back to those days. Staff will come and go, they will not have the same training because of this and the quality of care will suffer.” Len Collins, the director of Lyndhurst, said: “There are difficulties, but the contract doesn’t allow me to speak to the Press.” In an interview with the Daily Post in July last year, the council’s director of social care and housing, Tony Hunter, and executive member Cllr Dave Antrobus admitted retention of home carers was its biggest problem. They said they feared home carers would be tempted to move to an influx of retail jobs in the run-up to Capital of Culture, where the pay is better. Cllr Antrobus said last night some agencies had already signed the contract. “The Government are asking us to give value for money and that is what we are giving. We are making sure the tax payer only pays for the service it receives.” . A spokesman for Liverpool City Council said: “The new contracts are based upon feedback and ideas received from people who need home care services to assist them in living independently. “The new service will provide a much better deal for council tax payers, along with increased quality, flexibility and value for money. “We have agreed terms with eight out of nine of the success- ful bidders. If this doesn’t prove possible with the ninth, we will ensure continued high quality care provision and certainly no-one will experience disruption in the service they receive.” OPINION: PAGE 10 jessicashaughnessy Fears for elderly if home helps quit over pay cuts | 
35 comments:
Cultue
A decadent civilization compromises with its disease, cherishes the virus infecting it, loses its self-respect.
Regarding Care Workers Pay.
Can I ask just a simple question ? Why me?
I am a care worker working for an independant Care Agency. I have a mortgage and 3 beautiful children who need all the things that children require. Like food, clothes,toys,outings etc act.
My pay is about to be cut by 30%. Why me?
My hours wont be guaranteed. Why me?
There is legislation against discrimination racial discrimination, age discrimination, sexual discrimination and lots of other discrimination.
Discrimination against private Agency care workers? Doesn’t exist and its rife.
They say it’s to save tax payers money. But why me?
Has anybody asked the tax payers why it should be me?
District nurses do the same kind of job. Why not them?
The ‘In House’ service do the same job. Why not them?
Age concern do the same job. Why not them?
Other big charities do the same job. Why not them.
Its all paid for by tax payers.
Cant get it out of my head. Why me?
Has anybody asked the tax payers do they want to save money on people who care for vulnerable people?
Has anybody asked the tax payers if it should be just me?
I will go home to my 3 kids to night they will ask.
Why you Mum ?
Rose
Hi Mr. Parish.
I am so mad about this.
My Uncle receives care from an agency.
I spoke yesterday with his main carers. They said that if the 30% cut effects them, they will have no choice but leave and find a new job that pays decent wages and offers them stable work. What will happen to my uncle then? If most of the carers in the city feel and act in the same way, who will care for him? I think that carers do a fantastic job and they should not be steamrollered over by the council because they want to save money on the capital of culture. Carers have mortgages, just like Warren Bradley. How would he react to a 30% pay cut?
We need our carers. Something has to be done to stop this nonsense. Reading through your web site, it appears that if the council stopped spending so much money on yachts, paying off its staff and incompetence we may stand a chance of looking after people like my uncle and at least give him some quality of life like he has now with the carers he knows and is used to.
Lets put some things in to perspective, if ONLY one of the councils officials is making say £150 000 per year, and they took a 30% pay cut, £45 000 would pay for over 1 years work of care for my uncle. On the other hand, how many carers wages do they have to slash for the same effect?
Capital of Culture or Capital of Vultures? Leave the carer workers alone. Their job is hard enough without people kicking the legs from under them.
Madness!
Thought you all should know, despite the private sector being told to take a 30% cut in wages with no minimum hours, the Council run in house home carers are being made redundant.
The work they did have was given to the private sector, no new work is taken on except for 6 weeks if you are just out of hospital. Most of the carers from the council do not have work to do, this is because the stupid adult services let the service run down on purpose.
The aim of the council is to get rid of all the carers, of what is termed generic, they cost too much in paying staff to go home and wait until they get a call with some work, or walking the streets, many have become so disillusioned they have gone off ill. This of course costs a lot of money, so lets just get rid of them!
This needs just as much publicity as the private sector.
Care in Liverpool is excellent,when allowed to give it.
The Capital of Culture should not be cut, the disgusting high wages of these so called heads of the council and the Chief Executive, this is wht should be cut.
WHAT PRICE IS IT TO GET OLD?
Keep the pressure up Care workers, private and council.
If you are getting old, be very afraid as unless you have lots of money, there is nothing down for you.
Oh and lets not forget the Day Centres that the council are always trying to close down, Venmore Mews?
What has happened to that one?
Notice how the cuts in services for the elderly were not publicised until after the election?
Dirty Liberal Democrats, dirty dirty....
I am just a simple tax payer. I have nobody using the care services in Liverpool.I am sure I will need to use the serice at some time in my life.(Although I hope not) All I can ask is what the bloody hell is going on in Social Services in Liverpool? In House facing cuts.Private sector facing cuts.....everybody facing cuts.and they say the service is getting better. JUST WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON ?? (after all it is my money they are using)
I think that's right - we should not have to choose between Culture and Care. Both are important to people. What is wrong is the huge salaries for incompetent officials like Halsall and Hilton and Harbrow and the millions they have wasted on yachts and trips abroad and being sent back to school so they can find out how to do their jobs properly. We have seen no benefit.
I'll wager that someone somewhere in the City is doing very nicely thank you out of this and I bet that he or she is within the Evil Cabal
You bet your life someone is doing very well out of this and its not the service users or care staff.Its immoral
Every civilization when it loses its inner vision and its cleaner energy, falls into a new sort of sordidness, more vast and more stupendous than the old savage sort. An Augean stable of metallic filth
"Wherever you see a man who gives someone else's corruption, someone else's prejudice as a reason for not taking action himself, you see a cog in The Machine that governs us."
Let's not get too esoteric now - people's livelihoods are at risk here....
Glad somebody realises livelihoods are at risk.
That’s right Mr Parish.
There’s nothing mysterious or cryptic about my 30% pay cut!
The only mystery I face is how I pay my mortgage and feed my kids from July !
I'm getting old and I'm getting very very scared at the thought of my arthritis getting worse and my sight not improving, I cannot get around much at the moment but I manage without help for most of the time. I know that soon,in maybe 3 years, I hope its not so soon, but I know at some time I will need someone to look after me and help me with my essential needs.
Who will help me then?
Some young girl just out of school looking for a few bob now and again?
Or will we all stand up now and tell the council ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
The elderly of today are the very people who helped build the services the council is now trying to destroy.
Do we agree that our elderly are not important?
Is your Mother of no importance now ?
Why did your Grandad go to War?
Was it so he could be treated like dirt now?
Private or Council Home carers, we need to stand up for the elderly and show that sometimes the cost of a service should not be the first factor of consideration, cutting costs is not the answer in care, providing quality services using highly trained and committed workers, who actually care about the people the look after! This is the most important factor.
The most effective way of achieving a balanced budget is......?????
Colin Hilton Take a cut in your wages, I survive on £325 per week with 2 children, why can't you?
Phil Halsal.. You are supposed to be good at finances? Try this one for size then... take a cut in wages yourself! I know a mad idea, but just try it you will be amazed at how easy it would be for you, anyway your son can keep you in the custom you are used to, is he on the Sefton Pops?
All the other useless AED's of Liverpool City Council and the senior managers who don't seem to actual manage anything? TAKE A CUT IN YOUR WAGES FOR ONLY A YEAR AND WE WILL BE BACK ON TRACK!
LEAVE THE ELDERLY ALONE!
WE WILL ALL BE OLD SOON!
Now its the In House care workers protesting.......Who the hell is running Social Services in Liverpool? Do they know what they are doing? Oh to be in need in Liverpool !!
I have just got in from work and picked up the paper only to read about more protests, this time from the councils home help staff. I have done back to back shifts today and Im tired. I read comments like “communication breakdown” and “council management always say they do not know what is going on”.
Well it looks like their staff are in the same boat as us.
There appears to be the same old stories and cover up when the council “spokesman” says that there will be no job losses. I ask the social services bosses, whoever they are these days, to come and ask me and my fellow workers how many of us are going to leave and get new jobs as a result of the cuts they are introducing. We cant afford a 30% cut.
My home help friend is quite right when she is quoted in the paper “Whoever is responsible for this should be ashamed.”
The “spokesman” once again comes out with the same made up statements about consultation and representative groups. Let me tell you now Mr. Spokesman, you and your colleagues that are pretending to run social services have never consulted me about cutting my wages or hours.
They had better keep the home help service because they will need it when the private staff all leave to get better paid jobs!
I will be there to support your demonstration in six weeks – we should join forces and fight them together!
I’m going to bed now, cos while Im still a dedicated and loyal carer I need to get some rest as come rain or shine, hail or snow, Christmas day or Mothers day, I am at my first call at 8am.
At least I sleep with a clear conscience at night social service bosses!
God bless
X
astounding the way they are treating people
there priorities are wrong how can they make these cuts yet spend over a million pounds on things like the clipper yacht race ?
Tony Hunter is the Spokesperson, and there WILL be job loses in the council run home help service, that is a certainty!
Please tell us more aboput the demonstration in 6 weeks time please Stanford88?
stori blare. If Tony Hunter is the spokesperson for social services who is the Director? I want to write and tell him what I think of his running of the Sham hes operating in Liverpool that is causing so much heartache for servuce users and care staff. Anybody know were I write to him?
Thanks for your support stori blaire.
The demonstration I was talking about last night is the one mentioned in yesterdays Daily Post newspaper. It says “In-house home care workers say they are planning another protest in six weeks’ time, and say they will appeal for the public’s support.” I think that the union maybe organizing it. Unison?
It would be great if we can get a united front, with all care workers from both in house and private protesting against the council plans. They obviously don’t know what they are doing. If the council bosses would have spoken to us in the first place then we could have told them the effect their plans was going to have on us. Our service users ARE going to suffer cos we cant afford to take a 30% pay cut and still work as a carer. What part of that don’t they understand?
Perhaps they have thought it through and just dont care about care staff. They get paid massive wages and bonuses no matter what they do to us. I just don’t know.
The carers in the north of the city seem to have the right idea. Strike action maybe the only option left.
You say Tony Hunter is the spokesperson making all these comments about their being no problems and services will not be affected?
Tony Hunter, you and your workmates need to get yourself on a care induction training course, a moving and handling course, a food hygiene course, a health and safety course and get criminal records checks done because you may just be needed in some of my clients houses come July cos there aint gonna be any carers left, in house or private!
Oh, and by the way Tony, when you finish work after your first day as a carer and get home at gone 11pm like I used to, after a back to back shift of cleaning clients backsides, emptying their commode crying with a client and comforting them cos they have just lost a loved one and everything else I used to do as a carer, you will find a letter on your doorstep telling you that tomorrow you will get a 30% pay cut.
Will you go up stairs, kiss the kids goodnight, tuck them in and sit on your bed and cry at the injustice like I did?
You would do if you and your colleagues cared Tony Hunter.
Stay safe, united and pround my fellow workers.
Protests ! Strikes ! Carers on the streets, Service Users in wheel chairs protesting ! and they tell us its improving services? Just who the hell are the kidding ? Improving for who?
Its a good job we have you Tony Parrish47 to help expose whats going on in Care in the City.
Is Tony Parrish the 5th HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE I have to ask???...........The "Fifth" Horseman, Christ
Christ's return riding on a white horse and wearing diadems (rather than a stephanos) is described in Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 to 16:
“ Then I saw Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself.
He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, followed him on white horses.
From his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords.
”
It is believed that at the end of the current Kali Age, the god Vishnu will incarnate as a rider on a white horse called Kalki to destroy evil and uphold good.
Although the concept of,"On his robe and on his thigh was inscribed king of kings and Lord of Lords," is popular, translation has been proven that the actual statement from Aramaic is "On his robe and his (banner) he had a name inscribed, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." TONY KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK WE NEED TO EXPOSE THESE INFERIOR (PEOPLE WITHOUT FATHERS) ON HIGH SALARIES THAT ARE DOING SO MUCH DAMAGE TO SOCIAL CARE IN LIVERPOOL.
Any nominations for the Antichrist?
Please form a queue here..........
***Identity of the Antichrist***
A discerning person can identify the Antichrist by the number of the beast, specifically, 666 according to Book of Revelation 13:18 WHO IN THE SOCIAL SERVICES HAS 666 ON THEIR OFFICE DOOR ??
This year is the 200th anniversery of the abolition of the slave trade in U.K. Its also the 200th anniversery of the take over of the first country in the world, Haiti, by the slaves. Its about time somebody stood up for the rights of carers in the Care business.
Two hundred years ago in Liverpool if you walked down along Dale Street and along Water Street the offices of the shipping lines that took part in the pitful slave trade were situated. The occupants of those offices, the movers and shakers of Liverpool at that time,lived a grand life.Business thrived on the dastardly immoral, and sickening slave trade and the slaves who lived a life of misery. Whats the difference to-day? Those same offices are occupied by the movers and shakers of Liverpool at this time (Liverpool City Council) living a grand life. £100,000 + salaries not uncommon. THE SLAVE TRADE IS ALIVE AND KICKING IN SOCIAL CARE IN LIVERPOOL TO-DAY.
CAPITAL OF CULTURE ? SOME CULTURE !!
Tony Hunter IS the director of Adult Services.
He is based in Millennium House,
After him it is Colin Hilton I guess.
He is based in Municipal Buildings.
The council have a complaints service as well, also in Millennium House in Victoria Street.
Go on the council web site for more information on who runs the City and look at the Health and Social care committee reports while you are at it, this will tell you who to write to on the committee, they have ALL been elected to look after the best interests of the city, so write to them and tell them what YOU feel is in the best interests of the electorate!
Well said to Stanford88, he/she has hit the nail on the head when describing the real effect it has on people who just want to help others and earn a decent living at the same time.
The truth about ALL of the cuts in this City is Henshaw and McElhinney raped the City and left us with the mess, Storey and his Lib Dem mates let them do it!
We are now paying for that mess and it is as usual the needy who are targeted first.
How can one person who is not even from Liverpool cause so much heartache to a Liverpool,loyal dedicated caring workforce across all sectors? In House service,Private Agencies,Housing Associations,are all effected.Most care workers are so giving and so loyal to the people they care for. How can some moron do this to them?
He/or she should be run out of the City fast.Or perhaps run over by a bus. Its outrageous.
I am from Canada. I plan to visit Liverpool next year for the celebrations to see the Beatles Cavern Club,Anfield,and all the buildings I have heard so much about.I have been reading these Bloggs and about the 'underbelly' of Liverpool.How can it be? A vibrant so caled 'world class'City with an undercurrent.Corruption! A city that can't look after the most vulnerable its elderly and children.I am begining to feel guilty about my choice of next years holiday.Can somebody tell me the truth? Buildings are one thing...... people are another.
I am a care worker. I consider myself a good carer.We need to alter whats going on in Liverpooland look after service users and carers. There is another Blogg worth seeing by carers.Carers....you need to express your opinions http://unsocialservices.blogspot.com/
Oh dear it looks as though the council are going to have to re-think this one then?
What you gonna do now Tony Hunter?
Where are you going to get your budget deficit money from now Warren Bradley??
How are you gonna cover this one up Colin Hilton???
Where you gonnaget the funds for the Sefton Pops now Phil Halsall?
A thought just ocurred to me........Supposing there was only the Evil Cabal left on this earth......and no carers (They had gone to heaven)............. Who would look after who in the Evil Cabal? Who would wipe each others backsides? Who would lick each others backsides? Who would rob from the others? Who would stab each other in the back?................ Excuse me while I vomit.
Warren Bradley..Hope you parents dont need care now or in the future.Cos it looks as if they aint gonna get it.
To the person from Canada, Please don't worry about coming to Liverpool the place is full of caring people who love the City so much they are prepared to stand up and have their voices heard at great cost as they could lose their jobs.
Anyway hopefully if you come to the City after May 08 Labout will be in power and they have pledged to clean up the City.
This means getting rid of all the EVIL CABAL
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