Sir, You are to be congratulated on bringing to the attention of a wider public the considerable budgetary pressures care authorities face when providing residential and domiciliary services for older people (“Elderly left at risk by NHS bidding wars to find cheapest care”, June 1). Even, as your article shows, to the point of introducing e-auctions in order to buy at the lowest cost available.

In social care we have been, and are, introducing substantial reforms that will mean that older people themselves and their carers will, usually, have a controlling say in how and where their money and any statutory funding they are entitled to is spent. Where individuals and their carers have this personalised care available to them it is extremely unlikely that they will purchase on cost grounds alone.

While social care is being transformed, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) strongly urges agencies — local authorities, health and others — to remember that so-called reverse auctions might seriously undermine the quality of care provided. Buying care is not the same as buying stationery, and Adass flatly rejects the use of these auctions in this way.

We are expecting soon a Green Paper from government that, we hope, will help to create a system in which our twin duties of providing high-quality care at the most reasonable cost to the taxpayer can be delivered more fairly than at present.

Jenny Owen

President, Adass

Sir, Your shocking revelations raise the question of why the public sector is contracting out such critical services. In Germany the Government has harnessed volunteer energy, blended with professional expertise, to ensure tender, loving care from volunteers for frail older people. Some volunteers are recently retired; others are giving a year between school and university. The result is committed support with continuity of personnel and excellent value all round. Why not here?

Dame Elisabeth Hoodless

Executive Director, CSV

Sir, While e-auctions drive costs (and wages) down at the bottom of the services pyramid, there is no end to the largesse with taxpayers’ money at the top of the pyramid.

If the claim is true that reverse e-auctions provide “value for money” and that standards do not suffer, how could any public sector body possibly deny the benefit to the public of reverse e-auctions when seeking candidates for local authority and NHS chief executive positions?

Bill Parish

Hayes, Kent

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