REGARDING your recent campaign on the future of residential services for older people and recent presentation of readers' coupons at East Cliff county offices opposing any change, I am writing to emphasise the reasons for the proposals outlined in the consultation document.

I am, of course, aware that this has been a very emotive debate and quite rightly so when the future care of many of our older people is the issue.

The county council has agreed a strategy, in line with government thinking, to commission less residential care and more services which promote independence and enable more people to live at home through additional home care, more community equipment, adaptations and more sheltered housing.

New initiatives, such as rehabilitation units, help people to regain their confidence after hospital treatments and return to their own homes with support and help, and have a remarkable success rate.

One in Lancashire I am aware of has a success rate of over 75 per cent, which means more thanover seven out of 10 people who previously would have been accommodated in a residential setting are able to return to their own homes, which is what most people want.

In Lancashire, we place over 45 per cent more people in care homes than most other shires. Indeed, this was referred to by the Minister Jacqui Smith, in her reply to Pendle MP Gordon Prentice's parliamentary adjournment debate on February 26.

The county council is only one of a number of providers of residential care in Lancashire. While our 48 homes accommodate 1,100 residents, the county council currently buys places for, and supports more than 5,800 people in residential care in Lancashire, the vast majority in private, voluntary and independent placements already.

Lancashire County Care Homes operates 48 homes and is the largest provider of residential care in the country. If our provision is reduced to 13, it will still be among the biggest providers in the country.

However, readers should be aware of the new National Care Standards Commission, established to raise standards in the residential care market.

The standards are quite rigorous and include, for example, 25 per cent extra staff, all of whom should be police-checked and seeking NVQ level 2 qualifications; increased room sizes, with en-suite facilities in all bedrooms; lifts to all floors of a home and doorways wide enough to accommodate wheelchair users.

The commission's standards will have a profound effect on our homes and those of the private and independent sector. The Government has recognised this and that the new standards, announced in May 2001, will be introduced gradually from April 2002 to April 2007.

To do nothing is not an option. In 2007, unmodernised homes will not get a registration certificate and will close. Modernising them all would mean we will have Lancashire County Council places costing £1,000 per bed, which can be bought for perhaps a third in the private and independent sector.

Finally, returning to your campaign, it will not be possible to reply to each individual who has returned a coupon, but I will arrange for all the coupons to be available for all county councillors to inspect prior to any decision being taken.

COUN COUNCILLOR CHRIS CHEETHAM, Portfolio Holder for Social Services, Lancashire County Council.