Barnet Meals on Wheels contract rebid

For those of you who don't know the history of why I started blogging about Barnet Council, the major factor was the realisation in 2005 that the people running Barnet Council (Ie the Barnet Conservatives) didn't give a toss about the people who they provided services to. The incident that brought this home to me was when meals on wheels services were outsourced to Sodexho in Easter 2005.

At the time, my mum was still alive and relied on the meals on wheels service for her main daily meal. She had suffered a stroke and although living independently, a broken hip had severely limited her ability to cook for herself. Prior to 2005 a volunteer service delivered the meals. My mother was very happy with the service and the meals were of a good standard. Like many elderly housebound people, my mother was rather set in her routine. When it was announced that the contract was changing, she was most concerned. Firstly she was upset that the nice lady who brought her dinner would no longer be visiting. She was also concerned that the new service would not work properly. We all sought to reassure her. Of course Barnet Council would make sure the new service would still come. The glossy brochure explained that she'd get more choice and a better, more flexible service. Mum said "I don't want a better, more flexible service. I just want my lunch".

We all secretly laughed, "Old people don't really understand the modern world". On the first day of the new contract, no dinner turned up. Mother took to her bed in disgust. The second day, it came at 5pm, stone cold and completely inedible. By the third day, we'd started ringing councillors, making a fuss. It turned out that the delivery round had 40 dinners, allowing 3 mins per delivery. In short the amount of time was completely inadequate. After kicking up an almighty stink, we were told that my mums dinner would be the first meal on the round "due  to her special circumstances" (stroppy kids, who made a fuss). Sadly the size and quality of the portions was not what my mother had been used to.

Eventually the service settled down into a pattern, but at least once a week, the meal would be uneaten, despatched as a treat for our dog. We took to providing a rota to provide a hot evening meal as well. We wanted to make sure she ate. I realised that there were plenty of old people like my mum who were being neglected. I also realised that most of them had no one to stand up for them. That is how the blog started.

I have themes here, but generally anything where the wellbeing of our elderly residents is concerned is pretty near the top of the list. I was interested to notice that  the Cabinet resources committee is recommending  that Sodexho get the contract for another 5 years.


http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=9967

Due to my special interest, I noted a few things. Firstly the cabinet papers say Barnet have the most expensive meals on wheels in London. I think this is disgusting. I've extracted a few key facts. Perhaps the strangest is the cost of these meals. Given that you can get a Sunday roast for less at some of our pubs, I do wonder on how they decide this is value for money. It also disturbs me that quality is viewed as the least important of the scoring criteria. Price is the most at 35%, whilst quality is only 20%. That's what Barnet Tories think of our elderly residents. No surprises. After the stress Sodexho caused my mother, personally the only thing I'd have awarded them is a turn in the stocks so residents could throw rotten tomatoes at their directors.