Unqualified home care worker figures revealed
More than 200 home care providers in England have been using staff without proper qualifications, the BBC's Inside Out programme has found. It also found that dozens of convicted criminals had been working unsupervised as carers in people's homes. The figures were released by the Care Quality Commission after a Freedom of Information Request.Care Minister Norman Lamb said they were unacceptable, but did not show that "the whole system" had failed.

Inspectors for the Care Quality Commission - which regulates home care in England - found that 217 companies were employing workers who were not properly qualified. The BBC investigation reveals there were almost 1,000 allegations of abuse made against home carers in the Midlands last year. One carer in Coventry locked a vulnerable person out in the garden while another put a carrier bag over a care user's head. One company in Birmingham employed 23 carers with criminal convictions for offences including theft and assault. Inspectors also found that eight other companies in the Midlands were not doing Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks at all. One care worker, meanwhile, had seven previous convictions.

Care Minister Mr Lamb said: "That is deeply disturbing and the organisation concerned obviously needs to be held to account by the Care Quality Commission. "I don't think you can say that because something happens that is unacceptable that the whole system has failed." He said there was "a very clear system that holds providers to account". "Inevitably, in all walks of life sometimes things go wrong." The Department of Health said it was the responsibility of individual providers to employ suitable staff. Aiden Cotter, coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, called for independent monitoring boards - like those used in prisons - to be used in the care industry to protect older people.

"I don't think the government could ever afford to pay for the type of supervision that's necessary but it could be done by a voluntary organisation such as the Independent Monitoring Board," he added.

Whilst I agree with the idea of employing people with a criminal history, I feel there should be safeguarding and training to go along with working in this kind of environment. If you're not going to allow people who have gone to prison to work, you might as well hang them.

Out of interest, does anyone know if a CRB check shows up convictions which are "spent" ? A petty theft conviction from 10 years ago shouldn't, in my mind, stop someone getting a job.