Plans to privatise Brighton and Hove care homes shelved by Greens at eleventh hour

Plans to privatise some care homes for people with learning disabilities in Brighton and Hove have been shelved at the eleventh hour.

Experts at Brighton and Hove City Council believed the outsourcing proposal would lead to a better service while saving £300,000 a year.

But, despite the plans being on the table to discuss at a key town hall meeting tomorrow (Tuesday June 10), the minority Green administration has deferred the report claiming more time was needed to research the proposal.

Opponents claim the Greens have performed another u-turn by caving to pressure within the trade union movement and their own party.

But Green council leader Jason Kitcat said: “I believe we need to have a wider look at the council’s learning disability services in the round, rather than in a piecemeal way.

“The time is right to take a step back to look at best practice and research evidence from elsewhere.

“Thanks to feedback and my recent visits to council learning disability services I have furthered my appreciation of the issues at hand. I intend to undertake more visits in the coming weeks.

“Our ambition must be to modernise our services to provide the best possible outcomes for all service users with learning disabilities.”

As it is faced with ever-increasing cuts to its budget, the local authority agreed to review how it provides accommodation to those with learning disabilities.

Currently more than 130 staff are employed to care for about 60 people.

The first phase of changes agreed last year saw some services merged while houses in New Church Road and Old Shoreham Road were closed and a larger women-only residential care service was created.

The second phase, due to be discussed by the council’s health and wellbeing board tomorrow (Tuesday June 10), proposed keeping 19 spaces in-house for the most serious in need.

The remaining 42 spaces, as well as about 60 jobs, would be outsourced to the private or voluntary sector.

According to the report: “People with learning disabilities should be supported to live as independently as possible and be members of their community. The accommodation provided by the council is expensive and the quality is comparable to the voluntary and private sectors.”

But following the intervention from Green leaders, the plans will be looked at again by council officials.

Conservative councillor Ken Norman said: “This really is no way to run a council.

“Every time officers propose to modernise a council service by bringing in an alternative provider, for example from the independent or voluntary sector, the trade union bosses threaten merry hell and the Greens, dutifully followed by the Labour Group, back down.

“Our NHS partners who are about to join us for the first meeting of the new Health and Wellbeing Board must wonder what on earth they have let themselves in for.

“It is clear that only the Conservatives in Brighton and Hove have the political will to deliver the modernisation of council services that is so desperately needed.”

Labour group leader Warren Morgan said: “The Greens decision at the eleventh hour to pull the report on the future of homes for people with learning disabilities is yet another example of the Greens bottling out of taking tough decisions.

“It leaves us with the worst of both worlds; no decision and no timetable for making one, but worry and uncertainty for residents, their families and the sixty council staff at those care homes.”