It is what we all hope for. To enjoy our final years living in our own homes, among familiar things, not only the worldly goods but also the memories that cling to the place we know.

We hope that when our time comes, some system will be in place that brings sympathetic and well-trained people to our homes, visiting at agreed times, bringing care and comfort, and whatever medical attention we will need. We probably don't mind too much who provides that care as long as it is friendly and professional. Not much to ask?

Thursday night's Panorama programme offers a terrible warning. It has hours of footage that appear to raise questions about the care that old people receive: it suggests that they are left incontinent and unable to cope for themselves; that they receive the briefest of visits, often in the early hours or even late at night, from staff who don't seem to know what they're doing.

If true, this would be in flagrant breach of the contracts - worth millions of pounds - that the companies in question have with the local council.

To ensure that such breaches do not occur, intervention is needed at several levels. Councils must insist that carers are given professional, monitored training; the carers must be given confidence and the means to complain when they are asked to break the rules and find themselves in intolerable situations. Many carers are young, inexperienced, paid the lowest wages and left to cope virtually on their own. Whistle-blowing on bad employers must be encouraged.

All councils have a duty of care to appoint only those private companies whose record of competence they can verify. Spot checks on their performance should be mandatory. The idea that the contract goes to the lowest bidder amounts to the exploitation of vulnerable old people in the interest of profit.

Seventy per cent of care in the home is now carried out by private companies. The Government must re-examine whether this is always the preferred option, and institute safeguards against the shortcomings of such a flawed system.

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