Focus on Jobs, Focus on Economy

Despite the rather cras attempt by the right wing to talk about anything but jobs it is worth remembering that today marked a dark day for Medway and the United Kingdom. The Tory plan for economic recovery, the too-far too-fast plan, has failed and failed utterly.

Tories and their 'right-leaning' supporters simply dont care. It is all about partisan posturing and who performed well at PMQs. It really does show how utterly out of touch Conservatives really are.

No apology today from Mark Reckless, Rehman Chisthi or Tracey Crouch to the thousands of Medway residents who are jobless, who are being evicted from their homes, suffering from negative equity, worried for their futures.

No apology at all. Almost erased from the mind as they huzzah'ed the Etonian tonight. All mutual back-slapping am sure.

We can all see that the Euroloon extremist wing of the Conservative Party - which is now in charge - is riding on a high because they have promised the unpromisable; they have given the proverbial two nuggets of gold to their base and have seen a very temporary poll bounce. They are gleeful that UKIP voters; the 'loonies and fruitcakes' have joined them on their cause.

Some more moderate Tories are talking too; and they know that Cameron's position is now untenable on Europe. An embarrassing volte-face is now all but necessary. The City also knows it too...

According to Specator Editor who was talking with the Channel 4 Economics spokesperson Faisal Islam ""My gut feeling we'll end up back in the room, and even agree Treaty, after a facesaving 'Safeguard' >> my gut feeling too.""

The loons are high now; but they will soon feel a Euro-induced relapse.

Of course whilst the Tories talk Europe they utterly ignore unemployment which has now risen to a 17 year high. A record amount of lost talent as a direct result of Conservative economic failure.

Let the Tories talk about Ed Miliband; tomorrow's election result in Feltham & Heston, a Tory seat between 1979-1992 should have fallen to Cameron in 2010. Now, they are all but written-off in a seat, that had Cameron performed lasy year, would have been a Conservative seat. They had everything... but still could not deliver.

Cameron is not performing since he fluffed the election that was a gift-horse in the mouth... and deep down they know that his Etonian out-of-touch haughtyness is un-nerving to those voters who simply did not trust the Tories with power last year.

Unsurprisingly for a looser, he is now isolated in the world and derided by his own Deputy Prime Minister. He now oversee's a dysfunctional coalition government. This image will outlast the temporary poll fillip; and the damage done in Cabinet when Lib Dem dummies flung the toys out of the pram cannot now be undone.

Tories should be very worried that only a fortnight ago they were talking about kicking Cameron if he did the wrong thing in Europe; now you just have to laugh, they have the nerve to claim Labour is wobbling and should do the same with Ed Miliband. Too busy playing partisan games whilst the public demand better.

Our membership are not as fickle as yours; we are wedded to reasoned and sensible moderate policies. That will mean sure electoral gains once the public gain confidence; and that takes times, whoever is in charge.

Ed Miliband is actually doing well given the task. After 13 years of government, the worst recession since the 1930s, an unelectable leader (in Brown), the expenses scandal. Under his leadership polls have moved from the lower 20s to a consistent 40+. It is now interesting that many of the betting agencies put it odds-on that Labour will win in 2015.

Labour need to calm; continue to make the economic case and work at that niggling feeling that the Tories are making a poor job on the economy and actually focus on the issues that matter; namely employment.

At yesterday's Regeneration Overview & Scrutiny Committee I specifically raised the 'red-flag' markers all Councillors are reading on employment. The Conservative move to scrap the Future Jobs Fund was a massive mistake and we will not see the results of the Work Programme for another quarter. Tories scoffed in derision; Cllr Chitty was living in la-la land when she claimed in full throttle (as only Cllr Chitty can) that Medway is well positioned!

Lets just look at the Conservative failure:

More people looking for work than jobs available

Over 6% of young people unemployed for over 6 months, higher than UK average and South East

Medway higher overall rate then Kent, South East and rest of UK. [Kent is at 3.2%]

If you want to know what matters more than Europe; It's jobs.

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.

Formula Grant Revealed

Below is the Medway Council formula grant settlement.

For anoraks like myself, probably John Ward, and a few others this figure is probably the most important you will see... and actually raises temperatures across the senior officer team.

Initial thoughts;

• Government has included the Council Tax Grant with the formula grant which is highly disingenuous. Removing this grant the figure is actually where the Medium Term Financial Plan predicted which is good news for the Council... (though im sure better news would have been more money)
• Floor damping still continues despite the election of a Conservative Government in May 2010 (see Tory hypocrisy on this issue here, here, here and here). This was a major campaign issue under the Conservatives; now under their own government are strangely silent
• Councillor Jarrett has also raised the prospect of a 5.1% rise in Council tax for the 2013/14 budget year. Though not relevant to the below, the fact the Council Tax Grant has remained flat since 2011 means that after inflation Medway may be signficantly out of pocket by 2013/14. Jarrett is warning the Department no doubt of the political risk. The department has continued to 'lock' all Council tax increases at 3.5% so Councillor Jarrett may have to call a referendum, should this lock be repeated next year. Labour will no doubt keep an eye
• Coupled with Medway Conservative deficits in revenue budget (£5.1m) and capital budget (£2.8m) all eyes on our benches will be on Q3 forecasts. My question at last O&S on this regard shows there may be some light here. Interesting also the budget assumptions include reductions in adult & care spend for 2011/12; the consultation exercise it seems concluded?
• The Department for Local Government has also published a disingenuous table on reductions in 'spending capacity' for local authorities rather then the below. Details found here show Medway has seen a 3.1% cut, £6.36m or the equivalent of £57.46 for every household in Medway. The Tories have form here on spinning the truth.

2012-13 Settlement

Adjusted 2011-12 Formula Grant

(£) 85,401,992

Revenue Support Grant

(£) 1,535,423

Redistributed Business Rates

(£) 79,207,755

Principal Formula Police Grant (£)

_________________

Formula Grant

(£) 80,743,179

Grants Rolled In Using Tailored Distribution

(£) 7,963,183

Relative Needs Amount

(£) 65,109,749

Relative Resource Amount

(£) -24,183,997

Central Allocation

(£) 31,690,849

Principal Formula Police Grant (£)

Floor Damping

(£) -2,299,678

Top-Up to Avoid Losers From Additional £10 million

Council Tax Freeze Compensation £2,463,073

_________________

Formula Grant (£) 80,743,179

Transition Grant (£) 0

2012 sub-national population projection (number of people) 257,565

2012 tax base projection (band-D equivalents) 90,100

Tightlipped it would seem...

Still nothing has been said yet... clock is ticking...

You guessed it right. Despite a week having passed and the RSPB and other lobbying online and beyond our MP still has no position on the bulldozing of greenland at Lodgehill in our constituency for 4,500 - 5,000 homes.

Particularly concerned to note the RSPB have been ignored; given they will be leading any campaign to oppose the Peninsula airport it is not acceptable to just ignore the plight of bird species elsewhere.

Some might say its just a tad hypocritical to be complaining about birds on the North Kent marshes but conveniently ignore those on the Lodge Hill development.

Our MPs in Medway are getting wise about direct democracy online now.

Despite pledging to be open and transparent they are now trying to 'play for time' on issues which should be a simple yes and no for voters. CCHQ media training has finally sunk in...

Either way residents do need to know where the MP stands on this development and simply ignoring this will look bad...

Will keep a watching eye from any opinion of our MP on the building for 4,500 properties on green land in his constituency.

After all is only a massive local issue...

Medway MPs on Care home cuts?

Just returned from a packed hall of 60-70 people on the cuts to Medway care homes which was organised at short notice last week.

We will hopefully get videos up shortly highlighting how our MPs - Mark Reckless and Tracey Crouch - can not just sit on the fence and pretend this issue does not concern them.

Care home and adult social care is arguably the most important local issue facing residents at the present time and will vex the Council for future months.

I have tonight asked both Mark and Tracey on twitter what they think of the cuts.

I hope they will perhaps have opinions on local issues which matter to thousands of residents, vulnerable adults, staff and families

Any delay would show that they are either unclear or are intending to oppose the campaign to safeguard these services from £1m of Medway Council cuts.

Tory cuts to Care Homes

The attempt by Medway Conservatives to try and spin the reasons for Care Home cuts as being somehow beneficial to the elderly is low by even their standards.

The Timetable for cuts is now all but certain:

• 8th December 2011 - Consultation begins with service users until early February
• 26th January 2011 - Health and ASC Overview & Scrutiny Committee debate the paper. Tory-led committee will vote it through.
• 14th February 2011 - Cabinet consider the outcome and will rubber stamp the Tory position; despite objections from stakeholders

We know how Tories treat consultation exercises - Cabinet member Tom Mason made clear over the summer that Consultations would be 'binned' and ignored. Ironically over the Dartford Crossing tolls (which was a u-turn!).

We can all remember the Primary School closures which saw the Tories close good schools on the back of dodgy statistics.

There is a meeting tommorrow night to discuss the closures at the Corn Exchange in Rochester from 6.30-9.00pm.

There are however some simple truths. It is clear that there remain significant numbers of people with physical disabilities and an increasingly ageing and single population and that the reduction in numbers in Balfour, Robert Bean, Platters Farm and Nelson Court is not related to demand which we know is present.

We know that the number of elderly people is increasing as a result of demographics, but is instead about the erosion of eligibility.

The Tory spin, and it is spin, is that this is all about improving customer choice. It is total fiction.

The Council is facing unprecendented cuts from central government to the tune of 28% over four years. This is a no mean endeavour in good times but add in the fiscal incompetence of Councillor Jarrett and the Tory mugs who run the Council, we also have a current budget shortfall of £5.1m on revenue budgets and £2.8m on capital spend.

The Tories have utterly mismanaged the Council books and as result we are witnessing these cuts.

From my estimates and budget analysis the 'outsourcing' of residential care services will deliver 'efficiencies' (or service degredation) to the tune of £1m per annum.

Reduction in numbers?

I know several consituents who were prevously eligible to attend the centre who were rejected because they became ineligible. The fact is we know the Tories need to make up the budget shortfall. We know they have cut services and rejecting users would be a reason.

The Tories this blog suspects and alleges have made it increasingly hard for members of the public to use the facility so reducing attending numbers to the point it could justify closure.

And what is to happen to the Balfour specialist units?

The Balfour site is occupied by several specialist units including the Enhanced Care Unit. If this service is cut it may have to be relocated; is the service guaranteed?

And redundancies?

Councillor Brake has made clear there will be no redundancies. This is inappropriate to promise something they cant deliver.

The Council can certainly minimise redundancies and make the redeployment pool more open but they can not guarantee jobs for staff. Whats more those two Cabinet members should know it; and probably do.

Evidence from Shaw's Wood which was sold off and privatised in 2006/2007 shows there were redundancies.

Tory claim that homes are unsafe or open to 'widespread abuse'?

No one has made any assertion that Nelson Court, Robert Bean, Platters Farm or Balfour are unsafe. The assertion in the cabinet holder's speech is therefore inappropriate and not relevent to the debate.

Incidently the worst cases of recent abuse have been in private care homes so actually nullifying the point.

Southern Cross?

The issue surrounding Southern Cross in the portfolio holders statement is irrelevent. The fact is the uncertainty surrounding the homes was very concerning to Southern Cross residents and the Council had to pay staff members to come up with contingency plans at time and expense.

In addition there were several homes owned by Southern Cross that did have to close. Medway was fortunate in that the landlords could take responsbility.

The government has even made it clear that the Private Equity model used by Southern Cross was unethical.

Sadly our Medway Conservatives think asset stripping and selling things off is morally correct.

Either way; the point is irrelevent to the debate.

Most people of reasoned judgement can see this Conservative exercise for what it is.

The simple fact is that because of Conservative cuts nationally, coupled with fiscal incompetence on the current budget Conservatives have to make cuts and savings. They have identified the most vulnerable adults as a service which can be reduced.

Cutting £1m will reduce the service quality or outcomes for those in care. For Tories to claim otherwise is rubbish.

Tory budget folly driving care cuts

This week will see the call-in for the Care Home closures that the Conservatives have pushed onto residents at Christmas.

The timing of the planned closures and privatisation stinks and warrants further questionning on Thursday this week about the timing and purpose for the cuts.

This blog would contend that the Tories are cutting these services because they are desperate to find savings in the revenue budget which is now £5.1m over budget.

I asked several questions at last weeks Business Support Overview & Scrutiny about the Conservative maladministration over the budget. The Tories are now £5.1m overspent on revenue (departmental) budgets and have overspent by £2.8m on the capital projects (Bus station / Stoke Crossing / Chatham one-way system).

The fact is the adult services budget is a quick-win in fiscal terms for the Tories and this has been identified for some time.

People may also be interested to see the timing of this decision, especially during Christmas. The Conservatives were well aware of the 'savings' that required in Quarter 2; but have left it until now to put out the consultation. I consider that an absolute disgrace to do this over this period... and whats more this would have been planned.

It is also grossly unethical and ill-timed by those who should know better.

This is not about improvement in services to our residents. It is pure and simple about outsourcing care services to deliver savings of £1m per annum at the expense of the most vulnerable.