Kevan Lim

Well today the Evening Star has used my comments about the reduction in Home Care numbers following the conservative changes to the free home care scheme in 2007. Yet amazingly, Graham Newman the conservative executive member for adult care at the county council is claiming its nothing to do with changes they made. In a bizzare quote he says it was the fault of the Labour led county council and changes made in 2003.

Well I think he needs to get his diary out. The conservatives won control of Suffolk County Council in may 2005. According to official figures from the county council, in 2004, 5300 people were receiving home care, went up to 5600 in 2005 with 80% getting it free. In 2006 it had gone up to 5725 with still 80% getting it free.

Then the conservative changed the scheme. Indeed we managed to delay implementation of the ending of the full free home care but it still went ahead in 2008.

And guess what, the numbers dropped in april 2008 to 3523 with only 20% getting it free.

So how could anyone but the conservatives be responsible for the fall in numbers. It would be much more honest if they accepted thats what they had done. As one conservative said at the time. Our priority is the 80% of people who don’t get home care. More »

Crazy 24 hours.

Firstly an interview for Radio Cambridgeshire in my role as Chair of the Europe panel of the regional assembly. They wanted someone to explain why European issues were important.

Then, Suffolk Colleges “any questions”. Run like the real thing with the media students running the studio. Facing Jeremy Pembroke, Mike Baxter from Ipswich town and a representative from federation of small business. Interesting. Of course first question of the night was to me about MP’s expenses. However my views that the whole situation is disgraceful and damaging to democracy seem to be shared by most of the audience.

Most interesting session was when we got onto UK debt, an issue I will return to.

This morning Cambridge for further discussions about the future of regional arrangements in the east. A complete mess because of the governments insistence on some regional grouping that can only contain leaders of councils. we have made some progress but my problem is convincing government ministers to leave the best arrangements to people in the region rather than imposing from London.

And then back to ipswich for the Labour Party regional launch of the European campaign with cabinet minister Liam Byrne. Probably a complete waste of time especially as nobody talked about Europe. However I did manage to grab Liam Byrne and pressed the need for the PM to do something decisive about MP’s expense.

Which brings me back to the debate at Suffolk College on debt. Whilst David Cameron seems to be projecting a voter friendly image, a bit like Tony Blair and claiming that the conservatives have changed, on the ground in Suffolk we still seem to have the old style Tories in action. One of Jeremy’s key responses on national debt was to say, that it is essential that we dramatically reduce the size of the public sector.
Which means in Suffolk more and more reductions in social care, higher charges and probably drastic cuts in staff.

Of course we will have to make choices and even if we win the county council I do not expect the choices to be easy. But its clear I could never be a Tory because Jeremy and his colleagues don’t seem to understand that what the public sector is about first and foremost is protecting the weak, the poor and the disadvantaged. In the brave new world of new Tories the Tories of Suffolk seem to be locked into the age of thatcher.

I am not sure how many people read political manifesto’s other than journalists and political anoraks.

Apologies to any anoraks reading this. It appears to be one of those political traditions in the UK.

However I remember too well the 1983 labour manifesto dubbed by some “the longest suicide note in

history”.

So manifesto’s should be clear and straight forward and focus on the key issues of concern to the electorate. Especially I don’t believe you should promise something you cannot deliver.

So I read Suffolk conservatives manifesto for the county council elections expecting it to say very little.

And then I saw the quote in the East Anglian which said “ It is in Social Care that the Tories believe they have made the biggest impact, transforming the way it is provided for vulnerable adults, a more efficient, adaptable and responsive service geared to help older people get the help they need”

Whoever wrote that quote must have either had his tongue firmly in his cheek or must have been smoking something illegal

Over the last 4 years the conservatives have cut £56 million from the social care budget, have changed home care from a largely free service where 80% of people got home care for free to a service where 80% pay and are now raking in care charges to the extent of £32 million a year. They have also managed a regime criticised by their own audit committee for failing to effectively police private contractors delivering key services at home.

In debates on these changes at the County Council I have understood the rational of some conservatives who argue everyone should pay something. Not a view I share especially as everyone already pays something through the tax system.

But to dress up these radical changes to key services to the elderly and vulnerable as a more efficient, adaptable and responsive service is quite frankly a disgrace.

I sit on the audit committee of the County Council.  Very boring you will say.  Actually no!
it is one of the more effective committees of the County Council.

Amongst its investigations has been the failure of a home care provider to meet the contractual requirements of the county council.  They  were failing to turn up on time for home visits to elderly patients or some times not at all whilst claiming money from the county council.

It was also the committee that investigated the Chief Executives salary increase and recommend changes to council procedures following the District Auditors report.

yes both of these issues were mine, but the committee has a conservative Chairman and a conservative majority.

The reason I think it has worked well is because the Chairman, a conservative county councillor from kesgrave is fairly independent of the leadership of the county council and expects the committee to fully investigate any examples where the county council is failing to either get value for money or is failing to deliver adequate service to users of the service.

This independent attitude has probably got him into a bit of trouble with his conservative colleagues but it has meant the committee has been effective and has not been afraid to challenge failings in the system at the County Council.

So next time you meet a boring auditor remember he or she is probably doing a very important job.

As the election campaign starts it will be interesting to see what the big issue is people are concerned about. It is always difficult to get people to think about local issues when the election is being held on the same day as a national election. In this case the European elections

I now have over 7,000 voters in St Helens with the growth on the waterfront who will determine my future.

For me one of the big issues is the massive increase in home care charges. Back in 2004 I chaired the committee that agreed to introduce free home care charges. it was very clear from the evidence we received at that time that a free scheme would be very beneficial to a lot of people, would be relatively cheap to administer and would give over 5000 people free care.

Now since the conservatives scrapped the scheme 2 years ago the county is collecting over £3 million pound in home care charges. With charges up to £31 a week many people are now either reducing the number of visits they receive or are not taking the service at all.

There is on this issue a very clear philosophical divide between me and the county conservatives. Complex means testing is is often a very strong reason why older people refuse to claim benefits or take advantage of services. I remember my mother found it almost impossible to complete forms of the kind now used by the tories for home care. There are also many people who are too proud to claim even though they are entitled.

The beauty of the free scheme is that it was made as simple as possible for people to get the service and that meant a large number of claimants qualified.

During the last budget debate at the County it was clear that the tory administration believe that every one should pay something. They have also failed to understand that many of the private home care providers they now use have profit as their first priority. This was clear from the carewatch investigation I forced them to undertake in Ipswich where we found the care staff were being given too many clients a day to see which often resulted in late or missed appointments.

We need to get back the free scheme to make sure the vast majority of people in Suffolk get the home care they need and don’t have to worry about if they can afford it.

We also need to improve the management and spot checking of the private providers to make sure they deliver what the county is paying for.

I am determined that if we win back the county we will re-introduce the free home care scheme.

And for those who say theirs no difference between the parties this is one issue on which the voters have a very clear and major divide between ourselves and the tories in Suffolk.