Is this the next social care scandal?

The report in yesterday's Daily Telegraph, suggesting that expats living in Spain are being recruited for short-term live-in care work without much training or, it is alleged, active supervision, raises a number of warning flags.

One of the many agencies supplying care staff is apparently recruiting heavily amongst the retirement communities, offering quite lucrative (£800 per week) packages designed to "fit neatly with the expat lifestyle" and to attract those whose income has been affected by the fall in the value of sterling. They admit that many of those on their books don't want to look after the vulnerable, but were driven by the cash.

That doesn't sound promising, does it? But these are ex-nurses and the like, right?

Wrong. Many of them have no relevant experience or professional training, undergoing a short "induction course" and are then sent into people's homes without even a physical health and safety inspection of the property. Worse still, in the case of one of the significant agencies, these transient carers are treated as self-employed and thus not subject to regulation by the Care Quality Commission.

Are you really comfortable about leaving your granny in the hands of such people? Yes, they might be perfectly decent people, but their motivation isn't promising and their skill levels aren't likely to be sufficient to deal with the range of problems that might potentially arise.

They'll have support though, won't they? If you consider having someone theoretically at the end of a telephone line as support, then yes. Frankly, I don't, and you can be pretty confident that, if something does go wrong, it'll be the NHS that is the first port of call.

And, returning to the fact that these people will be self-employed, who is accountable if something goes wrong? Is there insurance and who supplies it, or is responsible for doing so? An agency might be insured for acts carried out by their staff, but these aren't staff, they're contractors - unless, of course, such status is merely a pretense to avoid having to administer PAYE and to pay employer's National Insurance Contributions.

No, this will probably end badly, at which point "something must be done". If I was the Care Quality Commission, that point would be sooner rather than later...