Fears over openness and transparency have seen Kirklees Council’s Cabinet told to review its unpopular decision to transfer two dementia care homes to the private sector.
On Friday (January 10), the controversial move to transfer the council’s two remaining residential dementia care homes at Castle Grange in Newsome and Claremont House in Heckmondwike to the private sector was examined by the Adult Health and Social Care Scrutiny Panel – which is made up of non-Cabinet members – after being called in for review by eight opposition councillors.
The decision had been called in over major concerns around openness and transparency in the financial rationale underpinning it. Ultimately, three panel members to two agreed that further action should be taken, with it recommended that the decision be put on hold and Cabinet members be given a multi-year financial analysis to inform their final decision. However, the Cabinet does not have to take this on board.
Lead signatory of the call-in, Cllr Andrew Cooper (Newsome, Greens), told the meeting: “The Cabinet decision is financially unnecessary. The case is unproven and not in the best interests of residents or their families.
“The decision should be referred back by this panel to Cabinet for them to look afresh at the financial case behind the decision for them to consider what privatising these homes says about their values and about a council service that is valued by residents and their families.”
Councillor John Lawson (Cleckheaton, Lib Dems) said there should have been some “big red flags waved” due to the financial “discrepancies” which had informed Cabinet’s decision. He said the process had been made “unnecessarily distressing” for families and added: “The fact that this decision was progressed should, in itself, be of concern for this scrutiny panel.”
Councillor Ali Arshad (Community Independents, Heckmondwike) accused the council of playing “musical chairs” with the figures. He said: “This is not the behaviour of a body that is treating the issue with the seriousness that it deserves.” He added: “Dementia care is not a business, it is a lifeline that requires compassion, dedication and expertise – values that cannot be guaranteed in the private sector.”
As the decision was examined, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, Cllr Beverley Addy, cleared up some of the information in the public domain that was not correct, including the £1.8m figure quoted as the cost of agency staff in the year 2023/24. Officers stated that the actual figure stood at £397k, making up 10% of total staffing costs, which is inline with the national average.
The figures quoted as the amount to be saved by the transfer were also raised, with these being different in various council reports – in some instances, said to be around £800k but in others, standing somewhere between £1.8m and £2m. However, Cllr Addy and officers explained that the figures were ‘different views of the same analysis’.
Further concerns were raised due to just one year’s worth of financial data from 2023/24 being included in Cabinet reports as the basis of the decision. Chair of the meeting, Cllr Alison Munro (Almondbury, Lib Dems), said the panel had received five years’ of information only one day before Friday’s meeting.
She said: “The scrutiny panel has never ever been provided with care home budgets and we were supplied with the financials yesterday. We only got those because we had to request them for the call in. We’re a scrutiny panel, how can we be expected to scrutinise any proposals from the council if we don’t have the right information to actually scrutinise?”
Following the meeting, Cllr Cooper said: “I welcome the decision of the Adult Health and Social Care Scrutiny Panel that recommended that the decision to privatise the two Council Owned Dementia Care Homes be put on hold. The Panel recommended that the Cabinet should be provided with a multi-year analysis of the finances of both Castle Grange in Newsome and Claremont House in Heckmondwike.
“It was clear during the meeting that the Cabinet had only relied on one year’s evidence to come to a decision on the homes. It is time to completely rethink this proposal and to retain the Care Homes under Council control. This will give reassurance to the families of residents regarding the quality of care in these two well regarded homes.”
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