A Best Value review of residential homes for older people in Norfolk has led to the resurrection of a plan to transfer homes to the independent sector.
The same plan was abandoned two years ago due to public opposition. Seven recently modernised homes are set to be the first to transfer with the rest likely to follow.
The review concludes: "Any continued provision of residential services by the council should only be done on the understanding that costs are reduced in line with the fees paid to independent providers of residential services."
Norfolk Council, whose homes have 1,138 places, put costs at the modernised residential homes at £210 per resident per week compared with £170 in the independent sector.
Unison branch secretary Jonathan Dunning said the comparison was misleading because many people in the council's residential homes would in fact be accommodated in more expensive nursing homes in the independent sector and warned that savings would be at the expense of members' jobs.
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