Joe Mooney was on BBC Berkshire this morning telling everyone that he "doesn't know of the cuts" that I speak about, but the council are actually investing more on adult social care. For you Joe, let me explain the cuts that you are making to ASC:

5 Day Centres closing, four being "reshaped", cuts to support groups etc: £2.2m
180 staff cuts (140 care workers): £4.4m
Bus service and concessionary fare cuts: £200,000

Other cuts to vulnerable people:

Education budget cut by 8.4% (£872,000)... Didn't Barbara Alexander come out before Christmas saying there would be no cuts to education?
Youth Service cut by 18.5% (£496,000)

There will also be a further £2.9m cut to adult social care in next years budget.

I would suggest that our Adult Social Care portfolio holder needs to be better informed, or needs to stop misleading people.

Where are the details that enable you to be so precise about the cuts?

SCHOOLS

Is any of the education cut related to shools opting out of local government control and getting their funding directly from the Ministry through the new scheme that I can't remember the name of? Or in the withdrawal of central goverment funding for schools building programmes? Or, heaven forfend, someone actually reducing excessive, unnecessary spending?

ADULT CARE

I didn't realise that WBC employed 140 care workers - I thought it was all contracted out?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00dlpv0/Andrew_Peach_17_02_2011 - listen around 20 minutes in

Joe Mooney: "I've listened to Richard and I don't know what planet he lives on, but he certainly ain't living on the planet of West Berkshire."

Andrew Peach: "I suppose it's his job as an opposition politician to raise the issue, are services to this vulnerable part of society being cut too much, that's really what he's putting on the table, isn't it?"

Joe Mooney: "I'm not aware of these cuts he is talking about to this group of vulnerable people, we're investing more and more money, year on year, on these people."

Andrew Peach: "So the eight million pounds of cuts won't effect them?"

Joe Mooney: "No, and we've invested more and more money in adult social care this year. <TUMBLEWEED> There has been eight million cuts, eight million pounds of cuts at the authority."

Andrew Peach: "Why is there a growing number of over 85's?"

Joe Mooney: "I wish I knew the answer to that , becaue if we had the answer then we could address things in a different way. The whole issue here Andrew is that we live in a very affluent area and we have a lot of people that because of their affluence are paying for their services and then after a period of time their finance runs out and the local authority picks them up. Last year we picked up eight of these capital depleters, and as a rough idea, every four of these people we pick up is an additional cost of £100,000 to the authority."

Andrew Peach: "I've got to leave t there, thank you very much".

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Yet again, one of our local councillors lying through their teeth. How can he say he is not aware of the cuts to the vulnerable?

£2.2m cuts to Adult Social Care services, including the closure of five day centres and cutting funding to support groups.
£4.4m cuts through axing staf, including around 150 care and youth workers, with a further 20 care workers expected to go in the next few months.
Cuts to bus service and fare schemes
8.4% cuts to education budget, despite Richard Benyon saying that our education funding would be protected.
18.4% cuts to youth services budget.

The elderly, disabled, families and children. The most vulnerable people in society, and all of them being hit hardest by the council.

Quoted from blackdog

Where are the details that enable you to be so precise about the cuts?

SCHOOLS

Is any of the education cut related to shools opting out of local government control and getting their funding directly from the Ministry through the new scheme that I can't remember the name of? Or in the withdrawal of central goverment funding for schools building programmes? Or, heaven forfend, someone actually reducing excessive, unnecessary spending?

ADULT CARE

I didn't realise that WBC employed 140 care workers - I thought it was all contracted out?

The care workers will now be supplied by agencies after the council axed them.

The overall education budget in West Berks has been cut by 8.4%. (That's a council figure, not mine!)

It seems these days it is OK for politicians to lie (even if it is lying by omission).  It is a privilege of office it seems.

Well done Richard for highlighting this.

Quoted from richard.garvie

The care workers will now be supplied by agencies after the council axed them.

So the care is not being cut?

Quoted from richard.garvie

The overall education budget in West Berks has been cut by 8.4%. (That's a council figure, not mine!)

WBC spend on education could be cut if schools opt out of their control - surely the council figure applies to their spend excluding direct spend from central government?

And where is the data you are working on?

WBC are planning to spend more in 2011/12 than they did in 2010/11 - so it isn't all cuts is it?

Quoted from blackdog

So the care is not being cut?

Basically, care is being shifted to agencies. The workers being sacked may even find jobs with the agencies. So all good then? I visited one man and his carer in Thatcham last November, and he was already on agency. He would rarely get the same carer twice in a week and every day he would have to explain his "needs". The worst bit for me is that West Berks do not send people to check on the care thatthey recieve. I could tell you what his live in carer told me about the hygiene of some patients that are now agency, but I don't think that is for me to say. All I know is that unless the council significantly look at addressing the short comings of agency working, this is a bad thing even if it saves us a few quid. Remember, my argument is that front line services should be protected, we should only be cutting these if it's a last resort. I'm all for efficiency, and could even bring myself to support agency working, PROVIDING all of the safeguards to retain standards were put in place.

Quoted from blackdog

WBC spend on education could be cut if schools opt out of their control - surely the council figure applies to their spend excluding direct spend from central government?

And where is the data you are working on?

WBC are planning to spend more in 2011/12 than they did in 2010/11 - so it isn't all cuts is it?

Go on to the decision making part of West Berks website, click meetings and then calendar and select last night's executive meeting. The click on all items regarding item 10 I think the budget is and fill your boots. Appendix A details all of the "savings" I believe. And I'm not opposed to all of the savings in that document, I just believe some of them are wrong and those are the ones I am being vocal on.

Agencies usually mean a drop in standards for work like this.

Quoted from richard.garvie

I could tell you what his live in carer told me about the hygiene of some patients that are now agency, but I don't think that is for me to say.

You are saying this person never gets the same carer from the agency on a consistent basis and then you tell us he has a live in carer who could advise the supplementary carer on his needs.
Not someone you have made up for your purpose is it.

Reminds me of David Cameron's '40-year-old black man' gaffe.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/17/cameron-black-man-debate-gaffe

Quoted from brian

You are saying this person never gets the same carer from the agency on a consistent basis and then you tell us he has a live in carer who could advise the supplementary carer on his needs. Not someone you have made up for your purpose is it.

Live in carers need a life too.  Perhaps that is what it is in this case: a relief carer?

Quoted from richard.garvie

Go on to the decision making part of West Berks website, click meetings and then calendar and select last night's executive meeting. The click on all items regarding item 10 I think the budget is and fill your boots. Appendix A details all of the "savings" I believe. And I'm not opposed to all of the savings in that document, I just believe some of them are wrong and those are the ones I am being vocal on.

Ta.

First comments:

The '£115,000 slashed from the concessionary fare scheme budget' merely reflects a reduction from last years estimated cost to the actual cost. So no impact on the users, just a recognition of the real cost of the system.

But they are anticipating £100,000 from the Parkway car park - they may well get it, but they are kidding themselves if they think that the income from the rest of the car parks will not fall as drivers use Parkway instead.  Will Parkway really bring in enough new shoppers to increase WBC's parking income by £100k?  I doubt it - bear in mind that WBC only get a share of Parkway parking fees - SLI get some as well so every parker using Parkway instead of a WBC park actually lowers his/her contribution to WBC's budget.

Take your point on the fares bit, but what if all who are elligible suddenly took up the option. With EMA being axed, surely more young people will be looking for assistance with travel? (whether they get it or not is another thing).

As for the live in carer I referred too, it is his sister, who also has a full time job in order to scrape by at all. If this lady gave up her job to be a full time carer, they would lose their house. I'm not saying I know better than anyone, but when I meet people, they tell me about their circumstances and how these changes will affect them. As for the point of the agency carers, one man told me the West Berks carer he had four days and the other three days built up a rappor with him. They would have a chat in the morning when they arrived to get him out of bed and dressed in the morning. They would make hime a cup of tea and have a chat about how he was feeling and just generally make him feel valued as a person. Without that client / carer relationship, a lot of the service falls flat and it becomes clinical and patients can't confide in anyone.

I'm all for efficiency within the local authority. But axing the day centres and excluding some people from attending is wrong. The changes to care provision are wrong, on the basis that there appear to be very little provision for inspections and checking on the clients. All of these things can be addressed, and that is primarily the reason for protesting. When people can see how strong feeling is, maybe West Berks will engage in consultation and adjust the provision accordingly.

Quoted from richard.garvie

Take your point on the fares bit, but what if all who are elligible suddenly took up the option. With EMA being axed, surely more young people will be looking for assistance with travel? (whether they get it or not is another thing).

If all elligible peole take up the option - and use their bus passes - then WBC would overspend on this element of the budget - but budgetting is about anticipating costs, not making huge contigencies and not using them.  It seems more reasonable to budget for a similar take up to last year than for a massive increase - though I suspect there will be a slighly higher take up (the number of over 60s is going up).

Will EMA make any difference to the elligibility for a free bus pass? I doubt it.

The Parkway parking is far more likely to lead to overspend - but I do accept that it is not as emotive and old peoples' day centres - how on earth did they get involved in a reply to my post?