“I’m not going to shed any tears for private providers that we make drag up terms and conditions for staff.”

That was the strong response from a councillor in response to concerns that council in-house domiciliary care staff were better off than other colleagues in private employment.

Clr. Vic Dennis said that holiday and sick pay, as well as travel time allowance, were what care staff were entitled to.

The comments came as a committee heard that concerns had apparently expressed by a private care provider to Pembrokeshire County Council.

The partnerships overview and scrutiny committee focused on the social services aspects of the draft budget with questions about bringing domiciliary care “in house.”

Some care had been taken over by the council following the collapse of Allied Healthcare but there was no plan “on the table” to add any more, director of social services Jonathan Griffiths said.

“We’re not in the financial position to move domiciliary services to the in-house services; it would blow the flat line budget,” he added.

Clr. Phil Kidney referred to an email he’d seen expressing concerns about staff benefits and said it could “create an uneven playing field.”

“They are looking at it as we are setting up to take it all on,” said Clr. Kidney.

Cabinet member for social services Clr. Tessa Hodgson said the commissioning staff had met with private providers recently and these concerns had been raised with a further meeting to “allay” them planned next month.

Aside from improving conditions for care workers the committee were told that the ‘flat line budget’ for social services could be met with many changes continuing from previous years.

Mr. Griffiths said supporting more people at home and closer working with health and third sector partners had led to improvements while work was continuing to ensure packages for children needing residential placements for complex needs was looked at regionally.

“It’s about ensuring people’s needs are met in the most appropriate way by the most appropriate provider.

“I’ve every confidence in maintaining the flat line budget,” he added.