The man in charge of
adult social care in the county
has apologised to vulnerable and elderly people who missed out on vital home
care after Leicestershire County Council switched their providers.
County Hall
Conservative cabinet member for adult social care Dave Houseman
said sorry after coming under fire for the troubled start to the Help to Live
at Home (HTLAH) scheme.
The project began
early last month when the council transferred the care of some 1,430
adults from 150 small independent firms to nine larger companies.
One of the firms,
TLC, backed out of the deal it signed in September just days before the new
regime was due to go live leaving officials scrambling to arrange care for those the
company was due to take responsibility for.
Opposition Lib Dem
councillor Simon Galton said Coun Houseman had been the "invisible
man" as the problems mounted leaving officers to make public explanations
about what was going wrong.
Coun Houseman told
today's council meeting: "I would like to apologise for to any of the
1,432 people who received poor care."
However he added:
"This has not been a political failure. It has been a provider failure.
"We had spare
capacity but we did not see a care company with 20 years experience in such
contracts, who signed a contract with us in September, would let us down with
just a few days before it was to start."
He said the council
was seeking to recover costs associated with staff having to work weekends and
evenings to plug the gaps in care left by TLC's withdrawal.
Coun Galton
criticised the Tories for delegating the process of moving the contract to
officers without political oversight.
Coun Houseman said
the Lib Dems had had numerous chances to comment on the scheme as it was being
organised.
Labour group leader
Robert Sharp described what had happened at the start of HTLAH as a fiasco that
had caused bed blocking in hospitals as wards could not release patients to go
home without domicillary care.
He said Coun Houseman
needed to "man up and face the consequences".
Lib Dem member Bill
Boulter said Coun Houseman ought to reconsider his position as cabinet member
prompting a stiff response for Tory council leader Nick Rushton.
Coun Rushton said:
"Dave has my 100 per cent backing and I will take absolutely no notice of
what you say at all."
He said the council
had done as well as it could have done after the withdrawal of TLC.
He said the criticism
of Coun Houseman was totally unfair.
Since November 7, 82
people have complained about missed or late home care appointments
from their new providers.
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