Age UK in Portsmouth loses £29,000 after taking on Meals on Wheels contract - but clients are happy

Age UK Portsmouth has lost £29,000 since taking the city council contract after the failure of the previous pub-run operation, however chief operating officer Rory Massey said it was 'trending in the right direction'.

‘From an operational standpoint, it's going really well,’ he said, giving an update on Monday (December 5). 'It's been very positively received by the residents of Portsmouth.

‘Obviously there are some challenges: they are largely centred around the financial picture. The charity has absorbed losses since its inception and for a local independent charity, losses are less than ideal.'

He said the service was serving an average of 70 people a week with hot cooked meals while the 'golden goose' target had been set at 93.

‘We can see light at the end of the tunnel,' he added. 'We know exactly how many meals we need to provide and we know our cafe needs to open to subsidise the service. We know exactly what we need to do.'

In August, the charity completed its takeover of the meals on wheels service which had, since the Duke of Buckingham contract was ended after less than a week due to 'significant concerns' about its operation, been run by the council in conjunction with Somerstown Central Community Hub and Radis Community Care on an interim basis.

Until the end of March it had been operated by Apetito but it pulled out after the council rejected a request to increase meal prices from £5.50 to £8.

A report by Mark Stables, the council's head of market development and community engagement, said the council had 'begun to see the benefits' of the Age UK operation through increased support, including social care referrals, given to meal recipients.

'The shared ambition is that the scheme grows numerically and is able to offer a service that allows smaller rounds and therefore more time for social interaction and guided conversations,' it said. 'That increasingly acts as a conduit to a range of support, supporting the strategic preventative agenda.'

Cabinet member for health, councillor Matthew Winnington, said he was encouraged by how the service was operating and the greater emphasis being put on the social care aspect of its operations.

'There's a real opportunity here to provide not just the meals themselves but also the welfare checks,' he said. 'The most important thing is that this is a value added service...it gives that welfare check but...they can then tap into their relationships with other other organisations.'

The landlord of the Duke of Buckingham pub Andrew Harvey said he felt ‘stitched-up’ after the contract was awarded in April as he had original agreed to cover three postcodes, and one more temporarily, but was then told to cover all six in Portsmouth because of a problems with other providers that had been lined up.

He said that he was not provided with customer names, addresses, contact numbers, food requirements, payment details, or key codes to get into housebound customers’ homes.