The council will pick up a £2.4 million bill following the decision to bring social care services in Bucks back in-house.

Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) announced in December that it terminated its contract with Buckinghamshire Care Ltd (BCL), which was set up by the council in 2013 to provide several social care services in the county, after the quality of some services was deemed to be inadequate.

It came after Seeleys House, in Beaconsfield, was rated inadequate in a damning Care Quality Commissioning (CQC) report which criticised the respite house, managed by BCL, after loose electrical cables were found in bedrooms and a stranger was discovered wandering the centre.

According to the officer decision report, accumulated losses of £2.4 million, which the council says it will cover in its 2016/17 budget, were brought on by demand for care services from BCL’s clients “not reaching anticipated levels”.

However health bosses stressed that over the lifetime of BCL, “the savings achieved are much greater than the one-off cost associated with the current transfer”.

County councillor and health campaigner Julia Wassell slammed the cost, saying she was “shocked” not only about that, but also the “disruption caused” by moving the services back in-house.

She said: “I hope that all service users and their carers are receiving a quality service during the transition.

“The councils at the moment seem to have plenty of cash despite all the cutbacks. The district councils voted for a unitary model which will cost £16m extra over five years than another model.

“Now the county council has found £2.4m extra to bail out BCL.

“I am asking questions about the causes of the BCL and how robust are other contracted out services like home care.”

In the Seeleys House CQC report, inspectors said they found loose electrical cables in all 12 bedrooms which “presented a risk” to people as they “could be used for self-harm”.

They also found a number of items which were “easily accessible” that could have “posed as a strangulation risk”, and said that people there were not protected from abuse.

Staff were found not giving residents their medicines as prescribed, and inspectors noted that people were not always treated with dignity and respect.

Worryingly, they also found people who were not receiving services had “free access” to the home. In one incident, inspectors saw someone who had not been invited by anyone walking into office areas, bedrooms and communal lounges.

Mike Appleyard, cabinet member for Health & Wellbeing, said: “At the time Buckinghamshire Care Ltd was set up as a Local Authority Trading Company (LATC) in 2013, it was the right model to use and has since delivered savings to the council of £1.4m each year on both contract costs and service delivery.

“The one-off costs of the transfer will be paid from this financial year and will be met from within the overall council approved budget.

“We will minimise as far as we can any disruption to service users and their families while the transfer takes place.

“All former Buckinghamshire Care Ltd services will continue as usual under the direct care and management of the Council.”