Ex-councillor Beavan's comments (Evening Press, October 20) based on the recent Audit Commission review of York's social services are not surprisingly a mish-mash of statistical misinterpretation and outmoded prejudice.

His claim that the report indicated that we are overlooking a potential saving of £2 million from the wholesale privatisation of our services is a typically partial interpretation.

The review compares the relative costs of in-house and independently-provided care in the city.

This comparison will be invaluable in further developing the relationship between all providers (both public and private) to the community's advantage.

The reviewers, however, do not commit Mr Beavan's fundamental error in assuming that the independent market in York has the capacity to absorb the entire care provision in the city which would be necessary to achieve the theoretical saving which he is alleging.

In fact the review team state that: "local market conditions are not favourable to the development of private social care".

He also presupposes that cost is the sole factor in the commissioning of care.

The review team rightly emphasise that: "desirable outcomes such as reliability and consistency of service... are important indicators of quality from the customer's point of view."

It was from precisely this viewpoint that at the conclusion of last year's pilot, far from executing any form of U-turn, members initiated a customer contract for all home care and quality monitoring mechanism to underpin it.

With this solid baseline in place, members agreed at their most recent meeting to take initial steps towards a commissioning strategy and a more balanced delivery of home care services in the city drawing on the strengths of all providers.

Coun Bob Fletcher,

Chair of Social Services,

Wentworth Road, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.