A REVIEW of how contracts to provide care at home were awarded will take place following anger at recently agreed changes.

Care workers who fear they will be forced from their jobs as their current employer lost contracts to provide care to elderly and vulnerable people at home picketed councillors who arrived for their April meeting.

The review won’t alter the domiciliary care contracts awarded by Monmouthshire County Council in its most recent retendering exercise for the south of the county but is intended to look at lessons learnt before the exercise is run in the north.

Around 30 carers from Magor-based Lougher Home Care were joined by supporters at County Hall in Usk where they demonstrated ahead of the meeting and held banners with messages including ‘keep care local’, ‘choose quality not cost’, and ‘we are people not numbers’.

Under the council’s new arrangements, it has awarded contracts for three areas across the south of Monmouthshire with Lougher Home Care awarded the Magor area meaning it will no longer operate in the Caldicot and Chepstow areas.

Staff will be able to transfer to new providers but fear less favourable working arrangements, though terms and conditions are protected under the TUPE process, and say disruption will negatively impact clients.

Lougher worker Jane Moore said in a question to the meeting that 93 percent of its staff have opted out of the TUPE process and will either retire or look for alternative employment outside of care and asked if the council had prepared for a potential reduction in the workforce.

Ian Chandler, the Green Party councillor who is responsible for care in the council’s Labour-led cabinet, said the council “wanted to acknowledge what must be a difficult time”.

Cllr Chandler said there would be a three month transition period where providers will make handover arrangements and he said the TUPE process is yet to conclude but all agencies will have to pay at least the enhanced real living wage. Changes to contracts were also intended to provide more stability to providers and care arrangements including employment, added the councillor.

Cllr Chandler said no bidder had challenged the contracts awarded.

Following the public questions Lougher carers angrily left the meeting in disappointment.

Cllr Chandler, and other cabinet members, opposed a motion calling for a “full and transparent review of procurement processes to ensure a level playing field for small and local businesses” and the Green councillor for Llantilio Crossenny defended the care retendering as supporting local small businesses with Monmouthshire only seeing financial scoring after quality scores.

The contract was based on 60 per cent quality and 40 per cent financial.

Conservative group leader Richard John said the council’s process and the amount of detail it can require from bidders can be skewed towards larger, national firms and said a review should be held before contracts in the north are tendered.

The council agreed, by 23 votes to 22, to hold the review with the vote of Labour councillor for Chepstow Bulwark and Thornwell, Sue Riley, proving decisive.