Disabled people and their families gathered with union workers yesterday to protest against the "dishonest" behaviour of Your Choice Barnet. 

John Sullivan, 70, whose daughter Susan suffers from severe learning disabilities, said he was calling for Your Choice to be brought back in house over fears of staff cuts and disruption to the service.

He said: “Your Choice says in its literature it has consulted service users and their families and the changes won't effect staff, but this isn't true.

"If we can’t trust them now, how can we trust them when we’re dead? All we parents are concerned about is our peace of mind. We had peace of mind under the old system but that seems to be gone.

“They seem to be operating a ‘fingers crossed’ mentality.”

People protesting also included representatives of union Unison, whose members include carers who fear their jobs may be downgraded.

The carers are worried about the downgrading of jobs, which includes the cutting of care workers from 28 to eight and the creation of 20 new assistant support worker posts, 25 per cent cuts in carers who work as and when required and the voluntary redundancy of more than a sixth of the workforce. 

John Burgess, branch secretary of Barnet Unison, which represents some of the carers, said: “This is appalling, this is the worst attack on low paid care workers in 20 years I’ve been working in social care.

“This will lead to severe disruption, stress and anxiety for carers, and poor levels of service.”

The members of the public then sat in on the meeting.

Mr Burgess said the meeting progressed peacefully until members of the board asked the public to leave so they could discuss confidential matters.

He said members of the public had asked what the confidential piece of information was but the board replied they “didn’t have to tell” the public because they weren’t a public body.

John Sullivan, whose daughter is severely disabled, then accused members of the board of leaving so they could "tell more lies between themselves rather than tell lies in front of us."

Blogger John Dix, who was also at the meeting, said it had been orderly until board members had refused to hear Barbara Jacobson of Barnet Alliance for Public Services read a statement written by Mr Sullivan about his fears over Your Choice.

He said: “The acting chairman of the board said ‘We’re not a public body, you can listen but you have no right to speak’; he didn’t want to entertain any discussion with members of the public.

The board members then walked out amid calls from members of the public to hold a proper consultation with service users and their families.

Mr Burgess said: “This was a massive overreaction from the board. Your Choice is funded with public money. They could have just listened to the statement.”