The transfer of social care services from councils to private providers has been bad for the sector, and government plans to go further in this direction risk wreaking future damage, say professionals.

A Community Care survey of 87 practitioners identified a strong belief that social care should be delivered by the public sector despite 20 years of contracting out that has left private providers dominating provision of adult social care.

Two-thirds said the quality of adult care had deteriorated because of large-scale outsourcing since the early 1990s, while 90% thought that outsourcing had been driven by the will of councils and governments to cut costs.

Meanwhile, government attempts to roll out GP-style social work practices under the Big Society banner have come under fire after four authorities pulled out of a pilot scheme, citing a lack of funding.

Warwickshire, Coventry, South Tyneside and Lincolnshire councils withdrew from a second wave of children's social work practice pilots to be launched this year.

Warwickshire Council accused the Department for Education of trying to rush the pilots into operation in a few months, with grants of £100,000 for each site that lasted only until the end of March this year.

It has also emerged that only one in four unqualified care workers is a trade union member, leading to concerns over the lack of protection for staff outsourced to the private sector.

Union membership among domiciliary care workers and support workers (24%) is far lower than that of care managers (58%) and qualified social workers (88%), according to a survey by the Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King's College London.

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