ALL 67 jobs at a struggling firm which supplies home care services to vulnerable people in North Yorkshire and the East Riding have been saved, it has been announced.

Scarborough-based Carewatch, in South Cliff, which was placed into administration on December 11, has been bought out by businessman Mike Padgham, managing director of Saint Cecilia's Home Care Services Ltd, a similar company a few hundred yards away in Westborough, Scarborough.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, was brokered by insolvency experts from chartered accountancy firm Baker Tilly. Both care businesses will continue to operate from their respective headquarters, but soon the combined ventures will become a part of Carewatch Care Services Ltd, the franchise network of more than 100 home care suppliers. It means that the service offered to more than 100 elderly and infirm people in their homes in Scarborough, as well as Driffield, Goole and Cottingham, will continue uninterrupted.

Carewatch ran into financial trouble early last year because of its increasing overheads, with wage bills in the industry steadily rising through increasing costs of recruiting, training and retaining staff.

Updated: 09:54 Friday, January 17, 2003