Birmingham set to pull plug on council-run meals on wheels service

Mar 10 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post

Council-run meals on wheels services for elderly people in Birmingham look set to disappear by 2012.

Cabinet members will decide next week to scrap the provision of hot meals within three years.

The service will be transferred to independent and private sector operators after then.

But elderly people currently receiving frozen meals from the council will have to switch to private provision from April 2010.

Birmingham adults and communities director Peter Hay has warned that the changes are a first step toward dismantling completely the existing meals on wheels service – which he said was of a poor quality and increasingly unpopular among customers.

The transition is backed by Sue Anderson, the cabinet member for adults and communities, who warned that demand for council-prepared meals has been falling for years.

Many people choose to spend the money allocated to them on supermarket meals or services provided by the private sector, she insisted.

Social services, which is struggling to close a huge budget deficit, will be able to save ­almost £8 million over the next six years by abandoning meals on wheels.

Coun Anderson (Lib Dem Sheldon) said the move was not designed to save money but to give elderly people far more choice.

She added: “We are not making assumptions on behalf of our service users. Some people don’t actually want our services any more. It is unacceptable that in a city with an increasing black and minority ethnic population, we do not have a mainstream meals service that facilitates those needs.

“There is a hidden market out there and if we make these changes, we could potentially see an extra 600,000 people accessing the service.”