Ms Joan Carthy:

The tendering process is very much geared around the cost and who can provide a service at the cheapest rate, as opposed to the quality of service with which people should be provided. The number of service providers is also an issue. In a small catchment area services are spread between different service providers which brings me back to the point of employing enough staff to be able to take up an hour's work here and an hour's work there. If the number of carers could be spread over a smaller number of service providers that might give an opportunity to employ people on fixed contracts of, for example, 20 hours. That is where the stability piece would come in and raise the bar a little.