NHS care homes for vulnerable disabled people are to be run by a private company after a report revealed "disturbing and systematic" abusive practices by staff.

But care workers have slammed the decision of the East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, saying they had been "sold down the river".

The trust, which has responsibility for all care homes for people with learning disabilities across the area, is re-tendering the service this year.

And it has been announced that it would be taken into private hands, after the PCT's and Lancashire County Council's bids failed.

Trust bosses said that such services were "no longer core NHS business".

It comes after an independent report into the service from when it was under a previous administration accused managers of "systematic abuse" by over-using tranquilising drugs, excessive restraint, locking service users in their rooms and, in some cases, bars on windows.

Under modern guidelines, the measures were all classified as abusive and contrary to civil rights The service had been run by the now-defunct Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Primary Care Trust.

Bosses of the replacement East Lancashire PCT ordered the probe as they were concerned about a number of allegations of abuse at one of the houses. Police had investigated an alleged incident in 2004 but did not take any action.

The decision to let a private company run the service was made at a decision of the PCT this week.

Around 250 staff will be affected by the sell-off, and dozens marched into the trust's board meeting to demand answers over their job security.

The staff have been credited with turning the service around over the past 18 months.

Speaking after the meeting, they said they had been given little information about where and how they would be working in the future, and did not trust assurances from the PCT that their posts, hours and pay would be protected.

One said: "I have given 32 years to that job, giving up Christmases and neglecting my own family because I truly care for those clients.

"A lot of them don't have their own families and we are their families - that's how much they matter to us.

"They say they are consulting with the service users, but if you ask them they want to stay living where they are, and being cared for by the same people."

Another added: "We are being sold down the river."

Trust chief executive David Peat told the meeting: "The context of provision has changed dramatically in the past few years, and the NHS is increasingly not providing this service. It is not regarded as core NHS business any more.

"This is a traumatic time for us all - it's a shock for any organization when effectively one-tenth of its service is subject to recommissioning, and it's particularly difficult for the staff who have served us in the past, but we are no longer in control of our own destiny."