Re: Your article 'It's Time To Come Clean': As Lead Member for Social Services, I sincerely regret the unnecessary distress being caused by ill-informed speculation about which of the six residential care homes may close.

Our overall goal is to improve the standard of residential care for the older people of Swindon. In that vein, it needs to be emphasised that none of this authority's care homes currently meet the new National Care Standards Agency (NSCA) standards required by the government for registration.

An independent survey of all the homes was commissioned which estimated the cost of full compliance to be approximately £10.5 million, and would still leave us with a reduced level of occupancy over that of today.

We would not only be acting irresponsibly, we would deserve criticism if we followed the practice of most privately owned and run nursing and residential care homes faced with the same dilemma, who solve it by issuing all their clients or their relatives with one month's notice to vacate. We would certainly be open to judicial review if we failed to properly consult those affected by such a proposal.

Following legal guidance, officers put together a comprehensive consultation process, to involve residents, their relatives, the care homes and adult services staff, trade unions, health providers and the independent sector. A 17 page consultation document was prepared and made available to all those directly or indirectly involved. This included the details of the full consultation programme, and the criteria being used to evaluate the homes.

Senior officers from Swindon Borough Council have visited all the homes on a number of occasions to talk directly to staff, residents and their relatives, and made themselves readily available to answer queries or address particular concerns. All these meetings have been well attended.

While this is by necessity a long process, it is a fair and transparent process which will ensure we reach a proper and rationally evaluated decision. Only when the consultation process is complete will the information obtained be examined by the working party to form a recommendation to the cabinet. I can categorically say that no decision has been made so far.

(Coun) Ian Dobie

Lead Member for Social Services

Swindon Borough Council