Roger Symonds and Cherry Beath

The Healthier Communities and Older People Overview and Scrutiny panel yesterday voted by 4 votes to 3 to uphold the call in. There was robust and meaningful discussion of the subject,  and the consultation with service users showed there was significant opposition to the proposed charges.  The Chair of Action for Pensioners, Joan Travis spoke opposing the proposd decision on charges, and asked that increases be phased in. She made the point that many of those who would be most impacted were the careful people who had saved for their old age, and now faced being financially penalised and could feel forced to cut back on the services they need. 

Those of us who voted to uphold are urging the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Services and Housing to rethink his original decision. However under the Council’s call-in system, cabinet members are not obliged to fall in line with panel recommendations, but Cllr Pritchard will have to formally state his reasons for rejecting its views.

The Panel’s recommendations were that:

• The home care charges should be phased over period of time, with incremental increase, to start as soon as possible.  The Panel’s advice was that vacancy management should be used to cover the shortfall in income.

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  The Panel requested ongoing appraisal of the impact of the charges or the impact of the vacancy management.