Elderly care report missing key facts

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 28th Sep 2004

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland has queried whether the members of the Social Care improvement Commission had been given all the facts about care of the elderly when they praised the Council's services.

She said:

"The report was produced as a result of a Liberal Democrat move following a Panorama programme which showed that in some areas elderly people were being cared for and sometimes abused in their own homes by people with minimal training

"Until two years ago, the Council operated a service called Careline where people who got into difficulties at home, because they had fallen for example, were able to call for help. This service was taken over by Bradford Community Housing Trust (BCHT) when all our council homes were transferred to them.

"BCHT are in the process of awarding this contract to another organisation at a considerably reduced cost which I believe is going to provide an inferior service.

It is surprising that members of the committee where not aware of this fact."