NOT enough is being done to monitor the way home care is delivered in East Renfrewshire, a union has warned.

Unison, the second-largest trade union in the UK, has said councils across Scotland are not doing enough to monitor care-at-home providers, and criticised East Renfrewshire Council for not making on-site visits to ensure people are receiving the care they need.

More than a year on since new guidance was introduced on social care procurement, the union made a series of Freedom of Information requests to councils looking at how they manage contract evaluation.

Among the questions, Unison asked what percentage of clients are visited by council staff for monitoring purposes.

East Renfrewshire was revealed to be among a number of local authorities that continue to rely on electronic monitoring, which Unison said is ‘simply a quantitative check and does little to assess the quality of services delivered’.

The council declined to comment when approached by the Barrhead News.

The union is calling for monitoring arrangements to be adequately staffed and to include site visits to service users.

Dave Watson, Unison’s head of policy and public affairs, said: “There has been little or no improvement in the monitoring of home care services since new guidance was introduced last year, and it’s not good enough.

“Spot checks by councils are crucial. They need to talk both to those who receive home care and to care workers themselves to find out if clients are receiving the care they need.

“Carers need better training, fair pay and time to care for people. The fact there is so little direct monitoring of the actual service delivery cannot be good.”