Southport councillor is calling for action to safeguard the care of
dozens of vulnerable people in the town who are reliant upon care services
provided by Mears Care.

Local Deputy Lib Dem Leader, Councillor Tony Dawson is asking Sefton
Council's Director of Social Services to take steps to ensure that all
Direct Payments and Private clients of Mears Care, who have just received
30 day notices from the firm, are provided with continuing quality and
quantity of care.

Councillor Dawson has also asked that the Council's Overview & Scrutiny
Committee are provided with information about what is to happen to the
large contract which Mears Care has for providing the Councils
directly-funded care in 60 per cent of Southport following receipt of
information that Mears have given notice of an intention to stop providing
care under the contract.

Councillor Dawson says:

"I have concerns, in respect of the local authority's contract with Mears,
to ensure that the Council has a proper process entered into which provides
the least possible disruption to both clients and staff. The immediate
thing which comes to mind is about whether TUPE comes into play when a
provider gives premature notice of a wish to leave the contract."

This is very unnerving to those concerned, but it is nowhere near as
pressing as the situation in respect of Direct Payments and private clients
who are being given relatively short notice to find care elsewhere. This
pressure may place even those clients who have got vociferous and able
relatives/advocates.in difficulty trying to find appropriate replacement
care arrangements within this period. The situation would clearly be far
worse for clients who have no such immediate family support."

Councillor Dawson is also seeking information in respect of the other
contract for the other 40 per cent of the council's care which is provided
presently by Preston-based Delta Care who have offices on Tulketh Street..

Email received by Qlocal.

Mears recently announced to staff and clients they were pulling out of their contract with Sefton MBC to provide domiciliary care to the sick and vulnerable in the area, today private and direct payment clients received a letter informing them that Mears will not be providing care after 23rd September, only four weeks notice.

The letter was signed on behalf of Julie Graves, Registered Manager. It suggested that she should be contacted and gave the offices 0800 number. When clients tried to contact this number they were told she was on holiday.

Maybe that explains why she could not personally sign such an important letter. Although she is expected back in next Thursday we are informed she is then going off for a further two weeks.

The Area Manager John Gavin is also believed to be on holiday. Does this show a company that really cares about its vulnerable clients?

One family, of a bedridden client has already tried to contact several other local care companies and has so far drawn a blank. Nothing to do with money but more a case that other firms are not sufficiently staffed to cope with the size of their relatives package.

The husband has himself gone through cancer and is now trying to stabilise his sugar levels as a diabetic.

On top of the stress he already has to endure he now faces the prospect of providing care 24/7. He is unsure whether him or his wife will die first. Do we live in a caring society?

Four and a half years ago Sefton split the towns main care packages between Mears and Delta Care. At that time people wanted to keep the carers they had had for years and the only way was to elect for direct payments.

A system that allows clients to recieve monies to cover their care as opposed to the council paying direct to the provider. These clients pay the same as those charged direct to the council.

As a result of that wish to follow their carers rather than be forced to another carer by the council. To these vulnerable people continuity is so important and yet for the sake of less than 4 months these residents of Southport are going to have their lives turned upside down and possibly ruined even more than it already is.

Some of these relay on the daily care they receive and have no comprehension of what this latest letter will mean. Their families may not even be aware such a letter has been received. Who is going to help these people.

The hard working carers themselves are shocked at today's news and. All their care over the years is to mean nothing as they are being forced to walk away from their friends and 'family'.

From their personal point of view it is unclear whether their employment rights to transfer in January to the councils new provider of care, or whether they will become another statistic on the Southport list of unemployed.

Will Mears reconsider their position and moral obligation until they officially hand over to a new provider. One would like to think so but their clients are not confident they will. They have been happy to take thousands of pounds of individual clients but after four and a half years are happy to strike them off the computer and ignore their plight.

We too are a casualty of this, received the letter on Sat. I have no idea which way to go, social services will be my first port of call on Tuesday after the Bank holiday.

I would suggest this move by Mears has occurred as they may have put their charges up & Sefton will not agree the additional costs, so Mears merely move on !