Home owners disappointed with Scottish executive response

Private residential and nursing home owners expressed their
disappointment and anger after leaving empty-handed from a meeting
with the Scottish executive to discuss the deepening cash crisis in
the sector.

Scottish Care, which represents 800 of Scotland’s 1,100
private residential units, was offered the meeting as an
alternative to a planned publicity campaign which could have proved
embarrassing for the Scottish executive. But after the meeting, Jim
Proctor, vice chairperson of Scottish Care, said: “There were no
proposals on the table. We had expected, having been invited to the
meeting, to hear something a bit more positive.”

Scottish Care was offered a meeting with the Convention of
Scottish Local Authorities, and reassurances that the executive
recognised the “urgency” of the situation. Proctor said that the
executive had laid responsibility for action squarely at the door
of councils. Scottish Care will take up the meeting with Cosla, and
be demanding an immediate solution to the crash crisis.

Meanwhile, Rita Miller, vice social work spokesperson for Cosla,
said: “It is not just about money. We will need to sit down and
discuss what care requirements will be needed for the future.”

The move came as the Liberal Democrats revealed that the number
of older people forced to sell their homes to pay for their care
had almost doubled under Labour. A survey by the party revealed
that last year in the UK 70,000 older people had been forced to
sell their homes compared with 40,000 when the figures were last
calculated in 1995.