Care for the elderly will face a crisis in recruitment and retention of staff, unless the sector can be made more attractive to work in, a leading figure has warned.

Ranald Mair, chief executive of Scottish Care, was speaking at the annual conference of his organisation, which represents private care providers.

Mr Mair said care companies could only pay low rates and were increasingly reliant on staff from eastern Europe to work with those needing residential care.

"They can contribute, and have sometimes come from cultures that value older people more," he said. "But this is a short term fix. We need to make sure care is a positive career option for people in this country."

Mr Mair also said politicians needed to take tough decisions. "We need politicians who are brave enough to say 'we have to invest more in care'.

"To fund that, they may have to be willing to say that we don't need another Forth crossing, or have to shut hospitals."

Politicians were challenged to respond to the crisis in elderly care at the Herald Question Time Debate on the future of health and social care for older people.

Neil Findlay, Scottish Labour health spokesman, said care in Scotland was being driven down to the lowest common denominator, which he described as a 'scandal'. He added: "We can't pretend we are going to have better public services for less money. But closing hospital A&E departments proved politically unacceptable."

SNP MSP Sandra White said the government's drive for integrating health and social care, and the option of direct payments would help deliver better care, but accused some councils of blocking the latter policy.

Jackson Carlaw of the Scottish Conservatives called for the NHS and independent sector to work more closely together.

Martin Green, chief executive of the English Community Care Association was also on the panel.

He criticised councils both north and south of the Border for seeking care on the cheap from the private sector.

"The public sector is much more expensive, but councils are quite happily paying themselves more than they are prepared to pay on the open market," he said.

He called for money for training NHS staff to be made available to staff in other sectors.

"The NHS spends £100 a minute on training. That public money should be available to anyone delivering a private care service," he said.

Earlier the event was addressed by minister for public health Michael Matheson.

He said: "The conference is important opportunity to discuss how we can help elderly citizens and ensure they are looked after in as homely setting as possible, for as long as possible."