Carers charity threatens action over public service tendering process

Finance | Kirsty Weakley | 21 Jun 2011

An Oxford charity is threatening to take the county council to the Local Government Ombudsman because of the way its tendering process for a contract to provide support to adult carers was carried out.

After the council awarded Age UK Oxfordshire the three-year contract worth £1.3m, trustees of the Oxford Carers Centre wrote to council chairman, Patrick Greene and local MPs accusing the council of “serious maladministration”.

Acting chairman Mattie Jefferies also claimed that during the tendering process the council had cancelled meetings and changed policies at short notice.

The council has confirmed that it received a letter from the trustees, which it is treating as a formal complaint.

Last summer the council estimated that 15 per cent of the 60,000 carers who were entitled to support were actually receiving that support.

The new county-wide service Carers Oxfordshire launched in April and funding previously allocated to three carers centres, including Oxford Carers Centre, has been diverted into the new service, which has a remit to “proactively identify those with a caring responsibility for adults”.

A council spokesman said: “The council's new adult carers' strategy is based around the idea of reaching and assisting many more carers in Oxfordshire.”

Jefferies criticised the new service for not providing a drop-in service, and said: “People knew us, could come to us and sit and talk. They can relate to somebody in person but not to an anonymous voice at a call centre.”

The council argued that the new service offered a range of support, including outreach workers, and said: “It simply isn’t true to say that there is currently no ‘face-to-face’ contact.”

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