A care company which was lambasted for the quality of its service has decided not to renew its contract with Bucks County Council.
Plan Care was embroiled in a scandal in 2011 about its standards of care towards vulnerable residents in the Vale following revelations made in The Bucks Herald.
It included a couple who had 100 different carers sent out to them in less than a year, while other elderly people were left to lay in their own mess because carers didn’t turn up.
The Care Quality Commission at the time described the firm’s service as ‘totally unacceptable’ but later in 2012 said it had made ‘significant improvements’.
But in a statement released today Bucks County Council said Plan Care had ‘provided a very valuable service’.
The statement said: “The three-year contract between Buckinghamshire County Council and Plan Care is due to come to an end on March 31 2014, and for its own commercial reasons Plan Care has chosen not to seek the extension allowed under the terms of the contract.
“The contract has therefore now gone to open tender, with the legal obligation that the new contractor will take on all staff currently employed by Plan Care on their existing contract.
“Plan Care has provided a very valuable service supporting clients in their own homes, and the county council will work closely with them to help ensure that services to clients transfer to the new provider smoothly and without disruption.
“Clients and their carers will be kept informed of progress in the conclusion of the new contract.
The other three main providers of homecare services in Wycombe, South Bucks and Chiltern districts have agreed to extend their contracts to March 31 2016.
