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Domiciliary care agencies are facing financial pressures, a conference heard, writes Cathy Cooper.

Low pay in the private home care market and warnings of financial pressures on agencies dominated the UK Homecare Association annual conference last week.

The UKHCA, which represents many independent domiciliary care agencies, called on councils to stop supporting 'poverty pay' in the independent sector. By paying less for independent services than for statutory home care, local authorities were supporting agencies which underpaid their staff.

Lucianne Sawyer, president of the UKHCA, told the conference: 'How can we be expected to provide a high quality service at less than £6.50 an hour in London or the home counties, when the average cost of the in-house service is £13 per hour?'

Croydon social services director David Townsend warned that the agencies paying the lowest wages were increasingly winning the highest number of contracts. 'Organisations which pay £1.85 an hour are unlikely to put quality or training on their agenda,' he said. 'Local authorities are obliged to get the best value for money, and that usually translates as the most for the least.'

And Sawyer said low pay often meant less commitment from workers who 'would always be looking for another job'. She advised agencies to include in tenders for contracts details of what they would be paying staff and what would be spent on training.

The UKHCA says there has been a 'considerable increase' in authorities' purchasing of independently-provided home care.

Government figures show that independently-provided home care grew 400 per cent between 1993-4. And public sector home care services have increased five per cent in that period.

Last year, 19 per cent of total home care services accounted for by local authorities were purchased from the independent sector. But a few authorities had still not spent the required percentage of community care transferred funding in the independent sector.

'There are authorities who have managed to resist purchasing domiciliary services from the independent sector at all,' said Sawyer. This was largely due to the belief among some local authorities that independent agencies were 'only in it for the profit.'

Delegates were told that many independent agencies were struggling to survive, with some ending up with just £200 a week to run. Yvonne Apsitis, vice chairperson of the UKHCA, said many organisations were 'hanging on by their fingertips.'

Scarcity of block contracts for services was discouraging many people from setting up agencies because they could not present bank managers with viable business plans. The UKHCA is planning a campaign to encourage councils to follow London authorities' lead in instituting block contracts.

Agencies which depended on one purchaser also faced an uneasy future, the conference was told. Many had lost large volumes of work in a short period because of the community care cash crisis last year. Authorities' unwillingness to set consistent standards for agencies was another obstacle.

Townsend called on local authorities to support new agencies. 'After operating the usual checks and balances, you have to assess people on face value,' he said.