Care fiasco 'must never be repeated'

CONTROVERSIAL plans to re-tender the care of nearly 800 of the Capital's most vulnerable residents have been abandoned amid fears that the wasted exercise has cost the taxpayer more than £250,000.

The city council confirmed today that it has cancelled proposals that would have seen hundreds of people with learning and physical disabilities given a new carer.

The decision came after an 80,000 independent review by Deloitte – seen by the Evening News – criticised flaws in the tender process.

The proposals had sparked mass campaigns from disabled people who faced the prospect of losing trusted carers they had known for several years.

It also led to nearly 500 people switching to "direct payments" – where the council pays them to hire their own carer – to ensure they kept the same person.

Opposition politicians today called for a full analysis of the costs involved and say that the total, including staff and consultancy fees, could rise to more than 250,000. The council could also miss out on some of the 2.4 million of savings the re-tender would have delivered.

It is also facing potential legal action from the companies that successfully bid for the contracts – as well as those that lost out in the bidding process.

Ian Hood, coordinator of the Learning Disability Alliance Scotland (LDAS), said today: "Edinburgh Council now needs to learn that it cannot treat people with disabilities in the same way they treat paper clips or potholes.

"It must review the process it has used to ensure that this never happens again."

The LDAS and some opposition councillors are now calling for housing leader Paul Edie to resign. However, council leader Jenny Dawe today insisted he still had her "full support and backing".

Councillor Lesley Hinds, health spokeswoman for the city's Labour group, said: "The cost of Deloitte's review alone is nearly 100,000. We can only guess what the final cost of the whole bungled process will be, but I would not be surprised if it has cost the people of Edinburgh at least a quarter of a million pounds.

"It is not possible to put a price on the human cost of this ill-thought-out and deeply-flawed tender."

Cllr Hinds also called for a full investigation into the costs involved. Nearly three years of work had gone into the process before it was halted yesterday.

The council was not able to clarify the costs involved today – apart from confirming that it spent 80,000 on Deloitte's five-and-a-half page review.

Edinburgh Central MSP Sarah Boyack said: "I am delighted that the council has finally seen sense and dropped this tender, which has been flawed from start to finish.

"The new contracts would have removed hundreds of service users from carers who they have built up trusting relationships with over time."

The 11 contracts would have been awarded to the new providers following a finance committee meeting in October when councillors voted for the proposals.

However, because of council standing orders, the decision was referred to full council – where it was then rejected.

Green councillor Maggie Chapman, who voted against the proposal alongside the Labour members of the finance committee, said: "I'm delighted that Deloitte have recognised the obvious flaws in the previous tender process."

During a tender process, the council sets up separate teams to investigate the quality and price aspects of the bids. It then uses the separate findings to allow it to ensure that the contract is awarded on the basis of 70 per cent quality and 30 per cent price.

But the Deloitte report – which the council tried to keep out of the public eye but was leaked to the Evening News – highlighted that two of the seven staff in the quality team "had access to price information".

Robert Wilson, a partner at Deloitte, said in his report that there was a tendency for "the quality scores relating to lower priced bids to be increased and higher priced bids to be decreased".

The council said the number of people applying for direct payments "seriously undermined" the viability of awarding the contracts. Around 80 per cent of users had applied to take up direct payments instead of accepting the care offered by the council.

The council is now to implement a short-term strategy for the next 12 months that will see existing services continue.

It will also raise the rate of direct payments to 15.04 per hour, rather than the 12.65 it was proposing under the new system. However, that is still lower than the amount many people with complex needs have to pay for the right staff. In its longer-term approach, the council intends to move towards a "framework agreement" where it still offers a choice of providers to clients.

Council chief executive Tom Aitchison said: "As Deloitte observe, the strategic approach adopted for procurement of these services was appropriate and reasonable, albeit the execution of the approach was not as meticulous as might have been expected. In light of Deloitte comments, I intend to conduct a full 'lessons learned' exercise to ensure that the council is well-placed to undertake future procurement projects, since this approach will continue to play a major role in securing the financial efficiencies required in the coming months and years."

Edinburgh North and Leith MP Mark Lazarowicz said: "The whole episode has been an utter fiasco. I'd doubt that there would be much change left from a quarter of a million pounds when you take in the cost of the procurement exercise and consultants' report."

BLACK MARKS

WHAT the Deloitte report found:

• Tender process was "open to inconsistency" in scoring.

• Some of the initial procurement documentation was inconsistent, insufficiently detailed and incomplete.

• Absence of "overarching commissioning strategy", leading to poor service user involvement.

• Two of the seven members in the 'quality assurance' process had access to price information.

• Price information was "inaccurate and incomplete".

• Execution of the tender process was "not as sufficiently meticulous or as thorough as expected".

• Changes in direct payments requirements may have affected the original business case and may necessitate "a reassessment of the way forward".

'I'm doing what I want to now'

STEPHAN Verth, who has cerebral palsy, has been in a wheelchair all his life. The 23-year-old receives 24-hour care from the Thistle Foundation – a Craigmillar-based charity – whose support workers help him with everyday tasks from showering and shaving, to housework and cooking.

He had been at risk of losing one of his main support workers, 32-year-old Colin Rose, as a result of the changes proposed by the council.

But now he will be able to continue to get care from Mr Rose, who has been caring for him since March 2007.

Mr Verth, who lives in Leith, said: "It is absolutely fantastic news. For me, things can stay as they are and I've got no more worries about finding a new care provider."

He credits the Thistle Foundation with changing his life, as he was in a respite care unit for ten months before going to Thistle. "Since I have been with the Thistle and had the good fortune of meeting Colin and the rest of the guys, I have become a semi-professional actor hoping to go professional, and I also help to coach the under-14s football team Joppa United," he said.

"My life has improved immensely, I'm more independent than I've ever been and I'm doing things that I want to do."

'We require quality staff .. my son has very complex needs'

JOAN Griffiths, who recently received an MBE for her role in disabled care, was worried about what the cuts could have meant to her 34-year-old son Thomas.

On top of suffering profound learning disabilities, Thomas, who lives in Restalrig, is autistic, registered blind and has hearing difficulties.

"On occasions he can act out like a three-year-old, being upset and distressed and not knowing how to communicate," she explains. "He cannot tell you if he is unwell. If you know him well, like his family does and his carers do, then you get a sense of what he is trying to communicate."

The future of Thomas' care remains uncertain because his care, through the Action Group, costs 17 an hour – above the 15.04 the council said it is now willing to provide.

"We need to have good quality staff," said Ms Griffiths. "My son has very complex needs and has to have a member of staff with him at all times. That costs money."