Lincolnshire County Council leader Martin Hill has dismissed fears home care services could be slashed as the authority looks to make savings of £170million in the next four years.
Colin Mair – the leader of UKIP at County Hall – claims lives of elderly and vulnerable residents will be put at risk because of the scale of cutbacks.
Coun Mair says the council has handed ‘responsibility for delivering home care services to 12 private companies’.
However, he warns the criteria for people qualifying for home care will be ‘toughened up’ and says care workers are already ‘leaving in droves’ because of the introduction of zero hours contracts and lower mileage allowances.
Coun Mair’s comments come just a week after he revealed subsidies to school and college bus services could be cut with parents facing bills of up to £40-a-week.
His comments prompted a robust reaction from Coun Hill, who pledged cuts to home care services would be minimal.
He said: “Although adult care services will not be totally unaffected, the impact on this area will be minimal and in fact we are proposing to spend more on adult care next year than we will be doing this year.
“This is one of our main areas of spending and a key responsibility for the council, with an ageing population and a trend of increasing demand.”
In a separate statement, the spokesman added: “LCC has not and does not intend to ‘toughen up’ our criteria for services.
“These are set nationally under the Care Act 2014 and cannot be changed by local councils.”
He also dismissed the suggestion that private companies were driving home care policy. He added: “What they are doing is delivering services that contribute to the council meeting its statutory obligations.
“The council contracts 12 providers to deliver care. Until last year, the council contracted with more than 70 different providers. With fewer contractors, this allows more time to manage the contracts.”
However, the spokesman did not deny that some workers were on zero hours contracts.
He said: “Each of the 12 providers has been given a guaranteed volume of work by the council, which enables them to offer permanent contracts.
“However zero hour contracts are legally allowed and anecdotally many carers prefer to not have to guarantee the time they will be available.
“Providers need to meet all their legal requirements as employers and our rates enable them to do so. This includes them being compliant with the National Minimum Wage, which covers the requirements of travel to and from calls.”
Over 10,000 people work in the care sector in Lincolnshire.