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Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Panorama exposes a world of chaos and neglect in the care of the elderly in Britain's Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔcare Scandal on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One tonight at 9.00pm.

Panorama reporters worked undercover for two months caring for elderly people in their own homes. They found carers on minimum wages – often with very little training – frequently frustrated by poor management.

They uncovered evidence of missed and curtailed visits; failure to keep proper care plans – including inaccurate records of what medicines should be taken; and untrained staff using equipment such as hoists.

Dame Joan Bakewell, the Government appointed Voice of Older People, says: "I am horrified by what you've found – truly horrified. I'm not altogether surprised, but the proof is really tragic and scandalous. It's easy to say it but something has to be done. Somebody must take responsibility for these lapses in standards and must ensure that standards are kept high in the future."

Panorama also showed the covertly filmed footage to Dr Rosemary Leonard, a south London GP for 20 years who is concerned about standards of elderly care.

She told Panorama that she was shocked by the findings: "I mean, where is, where's the time and the consideration for the elderly people here? They [the carers] just seem to be dash in, dash out, on to the next one. This isn't caring... You wouldn't do that to your own cat, why are we doing this to humans?"

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), which until 1 April was the official regulator responsible for policing the care companies in England, declined to be interviewed by Panorama.

Despite the fact that all the evidence that was gathered about care provision in England happened on their watch, they decided not to participate in the programme.

In a statement they said Panorama's findings mirror theirs, but in the past five years they have closed down just three home care companies in England. They have now been replaced by a new regulator, The Care Quality Commission.

Carewatch describes itself as the "fastest growing social care provider" in the country. Its York office hired a Panorama journalist and allowed her to work 14 shifts with vulnerable clients in their homes without waiting for her Criminal Records' Bureau check to clear. The company said it was an administrative error and apologised. It also sent her to work with clients without the moving and handling training required to meet National Minimum Standards.

Care UK has 48 care contracts with local authorities, mainly in England, looking after 15,000 elderly clients. It lost a contract in January with Hertfordshire County Council worth Β£2.4million a year following almost 2,000 complaints.

Sarah Pickup, Director of Adult Social Services in Hertfordshire, told Panorama that she wouldn't even entertain the idea of using Care UK again for elderly care, maybe even for the next 20 years.

She said: "I mean, you know, in 20 years time maybe Care UK is going to be a different, a different beast, a different business with different ownership and different management. Who knows? They're certainly not going to be on our list of people we want to do business with in the near future."

Janet Finn, a woman of 89, is doubly incontinent and suffers from dementia. Her son David tells Panorama how he called on his mother one Monday in June last year to discover her in a distressed state, lying in her own excrement. She was supposed to have three 30-minute care calls per day, but had been left on her own for 24 hours.

He said: "She'd had 24 hours with no food, no water, no medication and she was sitting in her own faeces and urine. And, bless her heart, she had tried to clear up and made it worse. It was in her hair, her face and her arms."

Care UK later admitted that Janet's name had simply dropped off the computer and apologised to the family. She has now switched to a different care provider.

Over the border, in Harrow, Care UK still has a contract worth more than £2million a year – but there have been complaints there too. Last March, its Harrow office received a visit from the regulator, the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI). It received a star rating of zero – and was found to be providing a "poor" service. It was failing on 25 counts and was ordered to take action. Seven months on, a further inspection found it was still in breach of 22.

Twenty of those failings – including care plans, medication support and erratic visits – should have been corrected by the time a Panorama journalist was employed as a carer in January this year. However, even after the CSCI report, the undercover reporter discovered evidence of care plan failings, unreliable schedules and even one case of an elderly man left without his medication for three days after it had simply run out.

Last summer, Ray Bellamy was told of a serious accident involving his mother, Ivy Bellamy, cared for by Care UK Harrow. He tells Panorama that the injuries his mother sustained were so bad, he failed to recognise her at the hospital.

"They said that Ivy had been hit in the face by a hoist and I thought 'my God.' I went round all the cubicles at A&E and I couldn't find her – and then – then I realised that was my mum because her face was so badly bruised. It looked absolutely horrific when I seen her, there's blood all over her face and eh... it was, well it was sickening to see the state of her. God knows how hard she was hit."

Ivy was to be the victim of a further accident, again involving a hoist. "I heard a bang, and the carers come running – quick, quick Ivy's fallen – and so immediately I run round here, and Ivy's laid on the bed all blood running down her head. When they'd hoisted her, she'd fallen through the sling. The outcome was they actually stapled her head and then she had to stay in hospital for a few more days after that."

Care UK says the incidents involving Ivy Bellamy were "regrettable and unacceptable". They found the first was an accident and the second "due to the provision of an incorrectly sized sling", which wasn't their responsibility. Care UK says its training is thorough and meets National Minimum Standards.

Care UK told the programme that within a week of the Panorama undercover reporter's departure, all of their care plans were fully updated. They say that where they had not met the high standards they set themselves they apologised wholeheartedly and have acted to ensure performance improves.

With Β£1.5billion of home care contracts available in the UK, bidders pitch for contracts.

Panorama has discovered that care contracts are being auctioned off by some local authorities in what are called "reverse e-auctions" where bids go down rather than up. The programme reveals that in South Lanarkshire the price of care has been driven down to less than Β£10 an hour.

While the lowest bidder won with a bid of Β£9.95 per hour, the council says the decision to award the contract to Domiciliary Care (Scotland) was based only 40% on cost with 60% of the decision based on quality of care.

Although Domiciliary Care (Scotland) – part of the biggest independent home care provider in Scotland – had been the subject of complaints in neighbouring North Lanarkshire, it still managed to score 100% in the questionnaire used by the council to judge quality of service.

Joan Bakewell – recently appointed Government spokesperson for the elderly – says: "It is the most uncivilised way to treat old people that I've ever heard. The idea of charging down the ladder of costs to force the costs down, down and down and down for the sake of profit is truly immoral – it's scandalous."

Andy Wilson is one of those whose care was won in that e-auction. Aged 78, he's unable to walk more than a few steps, hard of hearing and blind in one eye. The Panorama team fitted secret cameras in his house to witness the standard of care he was receiving. Mr Wilson had told the programme he hadn't had a shower or a bath for six months. His carer is filmed wiping him down with a flannel whilst talking to the office on her mobile phone.

Dr Rosemary Leonard, a South London GP, says: "I was just so shocked to see this. I mean this poor man, he's having his private parts cleaned up. She's got one hand on the phone she's got the other hand just rubbing him. I mean he's being treated with a complete lack of dignity here." The care company told the programme Mr Wilson preferred bedbaths.

The cameras were in Mr Wilson's home for 19 days and revealed the food served up by his carers consisted mostly of sandwiches, toast, cold tinned spaghetti and 36 packets of Quavers. On Christmas Day, he was put to bed early at 6.30pm and left for 14 hours. With visits cut short, he lost the equivalent of eight half-hour visits per week.

The company told Panorama it rejected any allegations of negligence regarding Mr Wilson saying that he prefers bed baths and that, while its staff are under no obligation to shop for him, they regularly do so because he has no food in the house.

Domiciliary Care was taken over six months ago by Choices Care Group, which says some of the problems exposed by the programme are inherited. It says it is appalled and deeply sorry to learn that the programme will show very poor care practise. The company says its own investigation found a number of Panorama findings proven – including curtailed visits – and that changes are being implemented.

Marcia Ramsay of The Care Commission, the Scottish regulator, says: "I'm really concerned about the issues that, that you've brought to us today and we will certainly be investigating those and taking any further action which is necessary with this organisation."

PR