City of York Council's new provider of home care services in the west of York will be making contact with customers and their families in the near future to talk about their needs.

The council reorganised the way that it provides home care services in 2006 following an in-depth review. About half of the home care and support services commissioned by the council are provided by its own in-house adult social services team, with the rest provided by three independent care teams:
- York Helpers in the north east of the city
- Carewatch Care Services in the south east of the city
- Goldsborough in the west of the city

More recently, Riccall Carers, an established local firm, has been appointed to work in the west of the city alongside Goldsborough, which has had problems recruiting sufficient care staff.

Before any changes are made to the existing home care arrangements, Riccall Carers will arrange to visit customers and their families to talk through their needs. These visits will begin during the next two to three weeks, but Riccall Carers will contact customers first to arrange a mutually convenient time. The programme of visits is beginning a little sooner than expected after a recruitment campaign carried out by Riccall Carers proved extremely successful.

Any customers with questions about these on-going improvements to the service are asked to contact Mark Bednarski, project manager, on 01904 554052.

Bill Hodson, director of adult social services, explained: "Following discussions with Goldsborough, we concluded that the best option was  to bring in another team to work alongside them in the west locality. This will enable Goldsborough to focus on the services that it currently provides, whilst the second team can bring additional resources to meet the needs of other customers in the west."