Fair cares for all

How sad, then, they should have found it necessary to put their own case by making allegations about carers working for agencies in the independent sector (Evening Press, November 24). They have sought to discredit the private sector quite unjustifiably to safeguard their own jobs.

As someone who has been actively involved in providing care in the independent sector in York over the last 14 years, I am fully aware of the constraints under which the private agencies have to work. They too do a good job.

The managers of private agencies work extremely hard to provide a reliable service and to recruit good carers and to provide training from their own resources.

They do not have access to subsidised training courses as do the care managers working for the Social Services, and moreover they are subjected to continual pressure from the York City Council to provide care at the lowest possible cost.

Agencies in the independent sector already provide upwards of 130,000 hours of care for Social Services in York, working in close collaboration with Social Services Care managers.

The pilot scheme to transfer some additional cases to the private sector was to have been small in relation to the amount of care which is already bought in from agencies by the council.

Looking at these figures one can hardly suppose that the council has no confidence in the private agencies, or indeed that it could meet the care needs of the community without the agencies' help.

Surely it is important to recognise the good work being done by all carers in looking after frail and vulnerable people who want to live in their own homes. For one section of the care workforce to seek to discredit the work of the other does little to promote the confidence of the people they aim to serve.

Juliet Agnew,

Woodland Grove,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.