CARE services earmarked for sale to the private sector will remain in the hands of Cumbria County Council following claims that the ailing service has been turned around.

Just two years ago, Cumbria Care Services was more than £1 million in the red but at their latest meeting, members of CCC's cabinet were told that Cumbria Care - whose services include residential care homes, day care centres and home care - looks set to make a profit of around £500,000 thanks to a "modernisation" programme started in spring 2003.

Clive Pickering, interim managing director of Cumbria Contract Services, which includes Cumbria Care, explained that the care home business, which in September 2002 made a profit of £162,000, was now on track to turn a profit of around £1.2 million.

Around half the surplus is due to unfilled staff vacancies in care homes, while the other half has come from efficiency savings.

Disability and mental health services have saved £500,000 by reducing losses from £648,000 to £145,000, while day care centres have moved from being £50,000 in the red to £50,000 in the black.

Home care services, which for the first time began charging clients for home care visits in 2002, are also undergoing modernisation with a new computer system, changes to its relationship with social services and new working practices.

"The recovery programme is real and sustainable, but it is just the beginning and we need to keep at it," said Mr Pickering, who praised Cumbria Care staff who had driven the modernisation and come up with the efficiency savings themselves.

Last year, consultants PriceWaterhouse Coopers had said that Cumbria Care should be among the services considered for sale to the private sector under CCC's Invest to Save and Improve scheme.

But after hearing about the change in fortunes for Cumbria Care, cabinet members this week agreed that options for "outsourcing" Cumbria Care should not be pursued any further.

They also agreed to set up a cross-party working group to draw up a ten-year business plan for the service.

Stewart Young, leader of the Labour opposition group on CCC, said that, while he was pleased the service would not now be privatised, he was still worried the improvements at Cumbria Care would not be sustainable. He was most concerned that the lack of staff at Cumbria Care residential homes, which had saved the service so much money, would lead to a drop in standards.

"It is not sustainable to keep those vacancies for any length of time. They are going to have to fill those and as soon as they are fully staffed, they are going to be losing money again," he said.