CARERS are preparing to strike amid fears their work will be privatised.

Kirklees Council employees who provide daily help to more than 300 vulnerable adults have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action.

Some 85% of home care has already been outsourced, with Kirklees staff looking after the 15% of people who require the most support.

These include adults suffering from:

Dementia

Multiple Sclerosis

Strokes

Congenital disorders, including Down’s syndrom and spina bifida.

Kirklees carers work with between 300 and 400 people with complex needs, ensuring they take their medication and helping them bathe, wash and eat.

But trade union Unison said yesterday that the council was drawing up a plan to hand this work to Batley-based social enterprise organisation Locala.

Spokeswoman Leonie Sharp said Kirklees managers had claimed that a Bill going through Parliament would abolish all council-run care.

She said: “On a corporate and directorship level Kirklees is having discussions with us about the White Paper on social care that they say will be outsourcing all home care, meaning there will be no in-house provision at all.

“While no concrete decisions have been taken, at local management level they are saying that the agenda is to move our members to Locala imminently.”