Care Home Campaign

Despite all the national news about Europe my focus for the last week has been closer to home; namely the campaign to safeguard our Care Home Services in Medway from an overt Tory privatisation exercise.

This issue matters to me. Firstly, It does strike personally to me as my grandma had to be looked after in the Care Home system and I can remember at the time the spectrum of quality of care. Without exception the quality of care in the public sector was better; though that of course from my second-hand experience.

Secondly, one of the homes being propsed for closure, Nelson Court sits within Luton & Wayfield. I can not express how much I respect the staff of Nelson Court and the work that they do with some of the most vulnerable adults. If the same is translated across Platters Farm, Robert Bean and Balfour then we truly have some tremendous staff.

Which is the reason I am angry that our Members of Parliament have shown no respect on this issue to the families, residents or service users.

I asked both Tracey Crouch MP and Mark Reckless MP a very simple question online; whether they support the Medway Conservative move to close and privatise these services.

Instead of giving me, and the general public a straight answer, we have been met with the proverbial cold-shoulder. Apparently, it isnt appropriate to ask MPs these type of questions on twitter!

Fine; if there is a more nuanced answer; a more complicated answer, then state it online.

Simply fobbing off a legitimate question like this is really unusual behaviour from public representatives.

Moving onto the Health and Adult Social Care meeting last week.

Medway Labour called in the decision by the Conservatives last week and has been working with partners to oppose the cuts to these care homes. Labour organized an emergency public at the Corn Exchange in Rochester with over 60 attendees and called-in the Conservative decision on Thursday 8th December for scrutiny at a meeting with over 100 residents.

Labour raised several concerns about the proposals and the justification for the cuts including why:

• The Conservatives had already budgeted for the privatization and closure of these homes as indicated in the budget appendix, and Q2 quarterly budget monitoring statement. Given this appears in the budget, we believe the Conservatives have already come to a conclusion before the consultation has even begun.

• The Conservatives have deliberately ignored more suitable proposals; including the establishment of a Council controlled limited company which would allow those with personalized budgets access to publicly owned services.

I specifically raised this point after Cllr Vaughan Hewett misunderstood (I dont think it was deliberate, more lack of research) that personalised care budgets could be spent in the public sector if it was within a company owned by the Council.

Some specific examples include the Norse Group which is owned by Norfolk County Council and manages several carehomes under the umbrella Norse Care.

• The Conservatives have not been honest about the numbers using the care home facilities, by not citing the cumulative numbers that attend in some publications.
• In addition, they cite the reduction in numbers as a justifier for reductions but have ignored a probable cause which is the change by Medway Conservatives to eligibility thresholds in 2008 which caused a reduction in accessibility to facilities

It is essential that there is a fair and transparent process for deciding who in a local area should receive social care support funded by central and local government. Until the care and support system is reformed, Councils have been using Fair Access to Care Services (FACS) guidance SCIE has produced Facts about FACS 2010: A guide to Fair Access to Care Services

Medway Conservatives changed the criteria in 2008 removing those with 'moderate' requirement from funding (there are five levels). This has led to a reduction in those eligible for services via Council funding.

It is worth noting that several other Councils; including Kent County Council accept those in care on moderate requirement.

• The Conservatives have totally mismanaged the communications process with reports of gagging staff and communication via the television media unacceptable to service users. In addition they have removed the cost savings of the proposal from any external communication given to stakeholders at these centres

Several speakers from the floor last week lambasted the Conservative authority for how it managed the process. I myself have seen several documents which show that service-users were given less information then 'staff'.

Facts in my mind were deliberately ignored by the Conservatives including the budgetary rationale for the cuts. In a consultation exercise, the facts provided to the public to respond is very important; Tories should not be able to manipulate the facts to come to a pre-planned conclusion.

Despite the waffle and spin from the opposite side; this is not about Labour opposing the move towards personalised care budgets. In many cases we accept that these have been a positive move for many residents.

The issue is about whether all the options have been explored and the manner in which this has been woefully mismanaged by the Conservatives.

The Conservatives have badly managed this process and have not considered all the options. The consultation premise is therefore utterly unacceptable.

We believe the Conservatives are cutting essential care homes and front-line services not to improve services but as a direct result of Tory fiscal incompetence. The Tories are predicted to overspend by £7.9m on capital and revenue budgets this year alone.

It is not surprising that the Tories will save £1m per annum by outsouring residential care to the cheapest provider In addition to this the closure of the Balfour Centre will save a further £200,000 per annum

Perhaps our MPs are shamed by the Conservatives on the Council. I suspect they are instead trying to distance themselves from the actions of their Councillors.

It is time for them to tell us where they stand.