At a special meeting of the community care and housing committee on Wednesday Liberal Democrat councillors spoke out over the Conservative councils plans to privatise its care home provision. Lib Dems said that people were prevented from understanding in the original consultation about the way a partnership arrangement would work and that there had been confusion as the public had not been consulted on the issue of privatisation, so couldn’t understand how the Council had come to that decision.

Speaking after the meeting Cllr Maggie Tyrrell said, “Previously at Cabinet and in subsequent reports when we asked the Executive Member Matthew Riddle about the proposals he said that the new Care Homes will be Council run. And until your latest decision that is what we and more importantly the residents all thought. You have to accept that it looks as if you were either untruthful in your previous statements or unclear in your reports and consultation. Parts of the report weren’t clear to us as councillors and we see these things all the time so how could they possibly have been clear to the public.”

She continued, “You say it was in the document, but the document is over 69 pages long and rely on one sentence buried in paragraph 45. You tell us that your Council prides itself on being clear and transparent but I don’t think residents will think you have been. The trouble is people don’t understand what’s being done and why because you changed your decision. The Public feel that you took the decision behind closed doors and perhaps even had privatisation in mind all along but didn’t tell them.”

Speaking in the debate, Councillor Ruth Davis, who has first hand experience of choosing a care home for her mother with dementia, said, “What people are really concerned about is what services they or their loved one is getting. They want to be sure they will be properly looked after and cared for. I did what people other people do I went out and looked at what was on offer locally, both independent and Council run. The majority of places were absolutely fine but what I was looking at was what my mother would experience both in quality of care and facilities. Each person has different needs and priorities. With the amended proposal to look for a partner to run the Care homes the Council needed to ensure they won the hearts and minds of the people likely to be affected. They missed a trick; if they had taken a little longer, been more open, honest and transparent then they may have won people round.”