I Wholeheartedly welcome the opportunity the Care Minister Normal Lamb is extending to home-care companies to engage with him about the sector.

It is vital that the industry is scrutinised to ensure that companies are meeting the necessary standards of quality and care, and those that are not are brought to book.

Treating all customers with dignity and respect and providing the time and quality of service to meet their individual needs should lie at the heart of every home-based care company.

It also is important local authorities, which often are the commissioners of such services from private sector companies, take into account quality and clients’ needs rather than basing decisions purely on cost.

Good quality home-care plays a vital role within healthcare, preventing people going into hospital unnecessarily, or into a care home earlier than need be.

Glenn Pickersgill, Heritage Healthcare, Tower Court, Clifton Moor, York.
 

• THE footage obtained by the BBC and aired on the news on June 13 was shocking.

The report points to a lack of training, lack of respect for the role by the carers shown in the film and poor management by the provider.

This sort of behaviour is unacceptable, especially where care of the elderly is concerned.

Companies and carers that let down the people they care for must be held to account.

While this case suggests individuals and companies at fault, it raises a bigger issue, and this is the need for a change to the entire system – and a fundamental change in society to become more caring, tolerant and respectful of the elderly.

But we would like to reassure older people and their families that there are, as Norman Lamb has said, many companies providing exceptional care and that these shocking cases are in the minority.

As a company we will continue to bring pressure to bear on the Government as they seek to put reform of our social-care system in place and we will continue to demonstrate that quality care, which places the needs and wishes of the elderly at the very centre of their care, is achievable and already happening.

As the owner of a local home-care company in York, Easingwold and Ryedale, we understand that all our elderly citizens should have access to quality care where it is needed.

Luke Norbury, Home Instead Senior Care, York, Easingwold and Ryedale.