CROYDON IN CRISIS: Registered carers have written to the independent watchdog to investigate the council’s bungled procurement process, dozens of them volunteering to be interviewed as part of an upcoming inspection.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Croydon’s carers, feeling betrayed by Mayor Jason Perry and their council over the threat of closure hanging over the Carers’ Centre on George Street, have begun a mass letter-writing campaign to draw their concerns to the attention of watchdog, the Care Quality Commission.
The CQC is the regulator in England that monitors and inspects health and adult social care services to ensure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. Croydon Council’s adult social care service is due for a CQC inspection imminently, it is understood.
And the CQC inspectors visiting Fisher’s Folly are likely to arrive primed with dozens, if not hundreds, of letters from carers concerned over the less-than-scrupulous manner that Croydon’s service has been handled, by the Mayor, the council and by the new contractors, Carers First.
Inside Croydon was first to report last month the announcement that the Carers’ Centre was to close, ending a lengthy partnership between the council and the Whitgift Foundation which had in the main served the borough’s hard-working carers very well. Carers have generally described the Carers’ Centre as their “sancturary”.
Uncertain future: it was going to close, then Mayor Perry had a change of mind, but the new service providers have admitted they won’t keep the Carers’ Centre open for long
When the Foundation did not have its contract renewed, it was no longer able to continue managing the centre. New service providers, Kent-based Carers First, are a commercial business who bid for council contracts around the country. As part of their provision, they do not routinely manage an in-person service for clients – directing them instead to a website, or a call centre based in Swindon.
But such was the public outrage about the closure of the Carers’ Centre that Mayor Perry was forced into a rapid U-turn, announcing that the centre would remain open, and that Carers First would operate it. It did not take long for staff at the Carers’ Centre, who were originally told that their jobs were safe, to be told that they were now part of a redundancy process…
“We’re now potentially paying with our jobs so that Mayor Perry can avoid criticism for his bad decision-making,” one of the workers told iC, asking to remain anonymous.
Croydon’s carers remain angry and wholly unconvinced by Mayor Perry’s waffle. Protests have continued. A meeting held with senior figures for Carers First at George Street has done nothing to allay concerns.
In fact, what the carers were told at the meeting has confirmed most of their fears.
“I believe that Croydon council are breaching procurement laws with changes they are making to the current carers’ contract,” one carer told Inside Croydon.
“Carers First won the contract but advised they did not want to use the Carers’ Centre building. Staff advised carers of this.”
Almost 40 carers attended the meeting, and they say that Toby Lee-Manning, Carers First’s operations manager, “was clearly unprepared for the number of carers present and the level of questioning”.
Multiple sources say that Lee-Manning confirmed that Carers First’s bid did not include having the hub on George Street, and that the abrupt change of plan was just to allow Perry to dodge the political heat. According to one eye-witness at the meeting, Lee-Manning “confirmed that the centre remaining open is simply a temporary solution and the model they operate is mainly ‘outreach’.”
Or as another attendee said, “The Mayor’s chosen providers have inadvertently outed him as a liar.”
Lee-Manning told the meeting that in Hackney, another London borough which awarded them a cost-cutting contract, the council there has decided to reverse its decision and return to their original, local provider, because carers have asked for a hub, which is not in Carers First’s business model.
In Croydon, as a result of the change of terms, Lee-Manning said that his company and the council are now renegotiating their contract. At the March 10 meeting, he said that no lease has yet been signed for the building.
The carers believe that all of this “invalidates the procurement process”.
As one of them put it, “Carers First have submitted a bid but are renegotiating to get a better deal post-award.
“The Whitgift Foundation’s constitution states that it supports carers. While it has chosen to accept the decision of the bid outcome, this change in procurement practice must surely warrant a challenge from all involved?”
Protest continues: carers gather outside the centre, including members of the carers’ choir, dissatisfied with the way they have been treated by the council
Carers First are so unprepared for actually providing in-person services and a carers’ hub in Croydon that they have told carers that for the first two weeks of April, they will only operate a telephone and website service – the kind of service model that they had always intended to impose on Croydon.
With a petition to save the Carers’ Centre having garnered 2,500 signatures, enough to force the council to hold a debate into this latest procurement debacle, carers are looking to ramp up the pressure by calling for the CQC to investigate Croydon’s provision.
Letters have been sent to the regulator, making a number of serious criticisms of the council’s conduct.
“Croydon Council renewed its carers’ strategy last year but, in a borough of around 30,000 carers, their consultation was limited to six to seven carer groups and total engagement was less than 100,” one letter-writer advised the CQC.
“Croydon has not listened to the views of carers. They provided no survey to carers during their consultation process and there has been no meaningful engagement with carers. It is carers’ views that Croydon Council are misrepresenting the views of carers and using the strategy as a cover for long-term cost-cutting.
“I understand that the CQC is due to inspect Croydon’s carer services imminently, and I have a concern that carer cases will be presented to you which do not accurately reflect the whole carer picture in Croydon.
“I therefore request that I am interviewed as part of this process, so that I can give you an honest and accurate account of what is occurring with Croydon Council’s treatment of carers.”
Which might make things just a little more uncomfortable for piss-poor Perry and his ever-more remote council.
Read more: Perry confronted outside Town Hall over Carers’ Centre closure
Read more: No Access Croydon: Kerswell closes off Fisher’s Folly to public
Read more: ‘Council is gas-lighting us over support services’ say carers
Read more: Council Tax hits £2,500 per year as debts continue to mount
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Carers are some of the most vulnerable in society, and yet despite their own problems, they come out in force to support a service which they describe as an oasis. The model is proven and successful, Carers First should do the honourable thing and withdraw from the contract.
The Whitgift Foundation have been supporting carers for years and in effect saving Croydon tax payers money. By awarding the contract to a purely business minded operator, the council is in effect not managing its finances well. This award decision will have massive ramifications – for carers, there will be no long term centre for support. And for the Whitgift Foundation staff, who find themselves at risk of redundancy. These are real people who outside of their dedicated professional work no doubt have financial commitments, and their lives will have been impacted professionally, financially and no doubt emotionally. Shame on the decision makers who put pounds ahead of caring for those who care for others. You should all be absolutely ashamed of yourselves.