Lincolnshire care workers protest over job fears

Care workers say the plans could put their jobs at risk

Care workers have held a protest in Lincoln over plans to reduce the number of companies providing home care services.

Lincolnshire's Integrated Care Board (ICB) has decided to cut the number of providers from about 80 to four.

Carers fear it will mean they could lose their jobs as smaller companies could be forced to shut.

The ICB has said the changes should lead to more consistent standards of care.

Many smaller providers in the county fear they could go out of business with the loss of contracts from the ICB.

"It means no income for my workers, it means no income for my own family, it means no income to my business," said Norman Charumbira from Namron Care.

Others have expressed concerns about the quality of care provided to people after the changes come into force.

Care provider Bianca Maifadi said her company had an outstanding rating with the Care Quality Commission.

"What I found extremely disappointing was that some of the other agencies that were chosen aren't working at that standard," she said.

Care providers including Norman Charumbira fear they will go out of business

The ICB said the aim of the shift was to "improve responsiveness for requests for home care, to have consistent standard of quality and to build a foundation to create improvements in the domiciliary care workforce".

A spokesperson said they were assured those awarded contracts met the appropriate requirements and standards.

Workers protesting also expressed concerns for the people they cared for and the impact of a change of carer on their service users.

Michelle Hammond's son Geoffrey, 32, is autistic and has epilepsy.

He requires overnight monitoring and Mrs Hammond said she had not been able to tell him his carer might change.

"He has had lots of carers in the past and he hasn't took to them, but the one we have now, we get the same carer all the time, he trusts him," she said.

The ICB said the new contracts with the chosen companies were due to be in place by 1 April but the transition would be managed in a phased way.