News

Week in Week Out: 1st Grade Care accused of ordering a client to be abandoned

Published

11 years ago

June 9, 2015

Tom Sinclair

Marie Perry – George’s wife

A Welsh council is investigating a case made in a Week in Week Out programme where a care worker was ordered to leave a distressed 92-year-old woman alone on the floor of her home, following a fall.

That careworker is employed by a firm which tenders for work in Pembrokeshire and Cardiff.

Vale of Glamorgan Council-contracted 1^st Grade Care is accused of ordering the care worker to abandon Doris Jones from Barry, and attend their next call before an ambulance or relative arrived.

The care worker told Week in Week Out: “I rang the paramedics straight away and all the time she’s on the floor. I then rang the office to say my lady is on the floor and was told to leave the call within the time I was allocated and go to my next call. I asked if somebody could do my next call for me because I didn’t feel happy leaving her, and I was told no. I had to leave her and to leave the door open for the paramedics.”

The care worker says she felt so awful about what she was asked to she do she challenged the order: “I asked if they would be happy if it was their mother lying on the floor and somebody left. I was told it was just the job.”

It’s a shocking accusation. We spoke to the son of 92-year-old Doris Jones who took the call. He told us there had been many concerns with 1st Grade Care including missed and shortened calls. When his mother came out of hospital she was placed with another care company at the family’s request. Doris Jones passed away last year.

1^st Grade Care has been in operation since 2011 and was set up by former property developer Michael Poole.

log-final-2015-300x119 The allegation levelled against the company is just one of a series made on Week In Week Out by families unhappy at the level of care provided as well as care workers who say the company failed to train them and they found it impossible to meet the demands of their everyday rotas.

In a damning report by the Care Standards Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW) published in January this year, 1^st Grade Care was said to be putting service users in “unnecessary and significant risk to their health, safety and well-being due to a lack of sufficient training for a high percentage of staff.” Issues surrounding rotas were also found. The company was served with a non-compliance notice and the CSSIW have been back to re-inspect. They say they expect to publish a new report by the end of the month.

Jackie Toom worked for the company in Pembrokeshire as a care worker and admits to being regularly late to assist clients as she struggled to follow a rota that only gave 15 minutes to travel from St David’s to Newport, or ended one call in Milford Haven and started the next at a location north of Haverfordwest, at the same time.

“You can’t be in two places at the same time. To get from A to B in zero minutes. We are not given any travel time so we could get more working hours – more calls.”

Marie Perry from Pembroke has Parkinson’s Disease and needed a care package to help her get to the bathroom four times a day but her husband George tells the programme visits were regularly late or even missed.

Mr Perry, who has had major heart surgery and whose condition is deteriorating, was left to lift his wife when care workers were late or didn’t turn up. He says he is angry over the experience and doesn’t understand why the authorities haven’t investigated the company earlier. Mr Perry told The Herald: “I don’t know how much control the local authority has over them. It’s not being properly policed otherwise they would have lost their contract some time ago”.

Week in Week Out has discovered that 1^st Grade Care has come under scrutiny by both Pembrokeshire and Vale of Glamorgan but neither council has thought it appropriate to cancel the company’s contract.

In a statement 1^st Grade Care, said that the company admits they have been failings managing care workers appointments but they now have a new monitoring system in the Vale of Glamorgan. But they had no comment about why problems with rotas and training had continued in Pembrokeshire despite a damning inspection in the Vale, and targets set by both councils.

Welsh councils have been under pressure to save money and drive down costs with Welsh Local Government Association figures showing £55 million shortfall in adult services over the past financial year.

There are over 400 registered care companies in Wales. The industry argues that for them to operate effectively a minimum payment of £15.74 per hour is needed, with even more in rural areas. But Week In Week Out has discovered that only three councils in Wales are paying this basic rate.

Industry insiders say the hourly rate councils are prepared to pay means they are increasingly unable to deliver services to home users effectively as they drive down their own costs to survive.

In Cardiff a new tendering system has been introduced that sees care companies bid against each other in a live auction for care packages. Professor Luke Clement from Cardiff University and an expert in social care law says he is worried by a system he believes lacks humanity and dignity.

Cardiff Council has defended the system saying it is offering value for money, improving quality as well as attracting new companies. But Week In Week Out has learned that the UK’s largest care company Allied Healthcare has pulled out of Cardiff, saying their decision was due in part to the new auction system.

Professor Clement is also critical of the inspectorate CSSIW. He told the programme: “If it is their job to make sure the sort of abuses and failures we are discussing don’t happen then clearly it’s not doing its job properly. If things go wrong there may be a letter or a slap on the wrist but companies are not being closed down”.

The Inspectorate has the power to shut down care companies that aren’t complying with regulatory standards. In the programme the CSSIW said the last year they had shut down five following inspections and 14 companies had been given strict conditions to conform to. David Francis, Assistant Chief Inspector of CSSIW said more people were coming forward with complaints tripling over the last four years, but they wanted to hear from more. He said: “If there are people out there who wish to make contact with us we welcome that. We would welcome them raising their concerns with us.”

Last year plans by Powys to reorganise home care fell into chaos and hit the headlines after companies failed to deliver and were shut down. Assembly Member Kirsty Williams says there were a number of issues that caused the new system to collapse. She wants councils to respond quicker when things go wrong. She said: “They simply do not know what is happening on the ground and then that makes the system really vulnerable. It relies on individuals making complaints and what we know about people in receipt of domiciliary care is often they are really frightened to speak out because they are worried that their carers are going to be taken away from them, they are worried that they will get people into trouble and often people are so grateful have any kind of support they are very reluctant to speak out if things are going wrong.”

The Welsh Government is working on a new law to strengthen the inspection of Domiciliary Care companies. Health Minister Mark Drakeford told the programme: “Our bill allows us to be helpful to those companies when we can help them to improve. But where there are companies who provide services of the sort that would not be acceptable to you or me or the people watching this programme. We want the law to be quicker, more effective and to make sure these companies are no longer part of our landscape”

Please watch BBC Week in Week Out, Tuesday, June 9, BBC One Wales, 10.35pm

News

IFS report says Wales lags behind UK on economy and poverty

Published

10 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Jon Coles

THE WELSH GOVERNMENT’s key Child Poverty Strategy lacks clarity, has no reliable way of measuring success or failure, and, crucially, does not account for the Welsh Government’s lack of control over the levers needed to deliver on it.

Those are the findings of a new report by the UK’s leading economic policy research body, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which looks at Wales’s economic performance and poor employment record.

The IFS report, published on Wednesday (April 1), shows that Wales’s economic performance is the worst of the UK nations, with the lowest employment rate, the lowest incomes, the lowest productivity, and the worst poverty levels.

POVERTY STRATEGY LACKS FOCUS

The Welsh Government launched its Child Poverty Strategy in 2018, with five broad aims to reduce child and youth poverty. However, the IFS criticises how those aims have been set out, finding that the definitions are too broad to be measured accurately and lack focus. In particular, the IFS says the strategy’s aims are so nebulous that they ignore the impact of policy areas over which the Welsh Government exercises direct control, for example, health and education, on how outcomes might be measured.

The IFS report says: “Issues with the data mean a material risk that the Welsh Government might either appear to have met a future poverty target or missed it, by a large margin, when in fact the reverse is true.”

WG NOT IN CONTROL OF OWN POVERTY STRATEGY

In any event, several of the most direct policy levers available to influence employment and earnings, including minimum wages, employment law and benefits policy, are reserved to Westminster. However, even if these policy levers were available, it would be very challenging to achieve large, rapid reductions in child poverty with them. In addition, Labour has ruled out using the tax system to generate additional income to help it meet its aims.

Wales’s highest-earning regions are along the North East Wales border with England and in the Cardiff and Newport areas. In addition, proportionately more Welsh employees are public sector workers, who are also, far and away, the best paid in Wales. The average public sector wage is around £5,000 higher than the average private sector wage. And those jobs, too, are disproportionately centred in Cardiff, Newport and North East Wales. The best-performing areas by employment rate, Monmouthshire and Newport, are within easy reach of the English border.

POVERTY CONCEALED BY LOWER PROPERTY VALUES

Compared with the rest of the UK, the gap between men’s and women’s pay is lower in Wales, as are the differences in income and in the highest and lowest property prices. However, property prices are far lower in Wales than in England, as are incomes overall; in addition, there are so few higher-rate tax earners in Wales that the Welsh Government increasing their income tax would have a negligible effect on its revenue. In addition, because Welsh housing prices are much lower than elsewhere in the UK, and because housing costs are a factor in how poverty is measured, housing costs improve one of the key poverty metrics.

News

Carol Vorderman urges Welsh voters to reject Reform UK ahead of Senedd election

Published

11 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Tom Sinclair

TV presenter and commentator to appear at Cardiff event aimed at mobilising anti-Reform voters before May 7

CAROL VODERMAN has urged voters in Wales to reject Reform UK at next month’s Senedd election, as she prepares to appear at a live political event in Cardiff focused on keeping the party out of power.

Speaking ahead of an emergency Guilty Feminist Welsh Election Special at the New Theatre, Cardiff, on Sunday, April 12, Vorderman said Wales faced a crucial choice at the ballot box.

She said: “Wales has a chance for a new beginning in May. But Reform, the chaotic London-based, privately educated, failed Tory party, needs to be sent packing.

“Already numerous of their 96 Welsh candidates have resigned or been sacked for revolting actions. Their last Welsh Reform leader Nathan Gill is serving time in jail for accepting Russian bribes while serving in the European Parliament. Their new Welsh leader was a Tory living in London until a few months ago.

“Farage is a thin-skinned and proven liar. Everyone must come out to vote to save our country. Cymru Am Byth.”

Vorderman is due to appear alongside Guilty Feminist host Deborah Frances-White, with Welsh comedians Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Priya Hall also on the bill. Organisers say the night will mix comedy, music and political discussion, with the aim of building strategy ahead of the election.

Frances-White said polling suggested the Senedd result could be close and argued that “it really matters who ends up making decisions about our lives”, adding that the event was intended as a “get-in-the-room” night to work out how to respond.

Reform UK’s current leader in Wales is Dan Thomas, who was unveiled by Nigel Farage in Newport in February. Thomas is a former Conservative leader of Barnet Council in London, although he grew up in Blackwood.

Vorderman’s reference to Nathan Gill points to a highly embarrassing chapter in the party’s recent history. Gill, a former Reform UK politician and ex-MEP, was jailed last year after admitting taking bribes from pro-Russian figures in exchange for speeches and statements in the European Parliament.

Asked for a response to Vorderman’s remarks, a Reform UK Wales source replied briefly: “Does she even live in Wales?”

It was a short answer, but perhaps not one likely to end the argument. With the campaign heating up, and with high-profile voices now piling in from outside formal party politics, the battle for attention ahead of May 7 is only getting louder.

News

Accommodation providers in Wales will be required to register under new law

Published

16 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Staff Writer

ANYONE who hosts paying guests in Wales will soon be required by law to register their visitor accommodation with the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA).

The new legal requirement will apply to all paid visitor accommodation across Wales, including spare rooms, holiday cottages, cabins, campsites and hotels. Registration will be required whether accommodation is let for a single night, occasionally, seasonally or all year round.

The register is being introduced to give a clearer picture of the visitor accommodation available in Wales and to support councils that decide to introduce the Visitor Levy. Registration will open in October 2026, and both informal hosts and professional accommodation providers will be required to comply or risk facing penalties.

Accommodation providers can prepare now by visiting gov.wales/registeryourplace to find out what information they will need and sign up for updates and reminders. Registration is free for providers and is expected to take less than 15 minutes to complete.

When registration opens, accommodation providers will be asked to provide information, including:
• contact details
• accommodation address
• type of accommodation
• how many people can stay
• when the accommodation is usually open for bookings

Who needs to register?

Any individual or business that takes bookings for overnight accommodation must register by law.

This includes:
• self-catering accommodation and homestays, including on Airbnb or similar
• hotels, guesthouses or bed and breakfasts
• campsites or camping pitches
• hostels or bunkhouses
• caravans, chalets, lodges, shepherd’s huts or glamping
• temporary accommodation for events, including festivals

Rebecca Godfrey, Welsh Revenue Authority Chief Executive, said: “If you take bookings for overnight stays in Wales, you’ll need to register with us. We want to make this process as straightforward as possible, and we’re here to support accommodation providers to register correctly and on time.

“We’ll be publishing further guidance before registration opens in October 2026. In the meantime, I’d encourage providers to visit gov.wales/registeryourplace to find out what to expect and sign up for updates.”