Tony Reid , PhotoZero marks for care scheme
Feb 15 2007
By William Green, The Journal
A £7m care scheme run by a North-East council to offer housing support to some of the most vulnerable in society has been handed a zero rating by independent inspectors.
An Audit Commission report, due to be released today, has branded the delivery of the Northumberland County Council "Supporting People" scheme as "poor" with "uncertain prospects" to improve - and given the programme a zero star poor rating out of a possible three.
The programme is supposed to look after individuals at risk of being unable to stay in their own home because they cannot cope with independent living - including people with mental health problems, with learning disabilities and vulnerable young and older people.
In Northumberland, it is managed by the county's care trust on behalf of the county council.
The county council received a Government grant of £7.054m in 2006/07 and the administrative cost is £286,689 - with the programme funding 4,518 supported accommodation places.
The report said the council has improved the performance and quality of some services, but warned there has been a lack of robust governance, leadership and direction which has hampered services.
There has also been limited involvement of people who use the service, according to the Audit Commission which worked with the Inspectorate of Probation and Commission for Social Care Inspection.
Domini Gunn-Peim, Audit Commission senior manager, said: "The council has made slow progress in delivery of the programme. Whilst there are positive improvements in individual services there has been a lack of vision, and the delivery of strategic aims and objectives is in its infancy.
"However, the results of reviews of governance, needs analyses and a proposed performance monitoring system will give a good basis to take the programme forward."
Inspectors found a five-year strategy was weak in establishing how commissioning priorities will be addressed - with further reviews of services for older people and those with learning disabilities needed.
Alan Beith, Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick, said: "This is an extremely worrying sign that a lot is now wrong at the county council.
"They would be better to concentrate on improving core services rather than devoting so much energy to trying to take over the districts."
The county council said it was already starting to address many of the recommendations with a new executive director Daljit Lally.
A detailed action plan was now in place.
It added adult care services were undergoing a significant reorganisation when the inspection took place.
Councillor Tony Reid, executive member for health and wellbeing, said: "Clearly we are disappointed with the overall rating in the inspection report.
"There are of course unique challenges of working with six district housing departments plus health, probation and other partners.
"We are aware of the difficulties that there have been and are taking action to address these, and the report notes significant improvements over the last 18 months."
But he added that the council accepted all the recommendations in the report and had started to deal with many of them.
"The recommendations on improving governance have already been implemented, and a user involvement strategy is being developed," he said.
"We have a detailed action plan in place to move forward on all the recommendations and are very pleased with the way all partners are now pulling together to make improvements."
A Northumberland Care Trust spokeswoman said: "Northumberland Care Trust and Northumberland County Council are working very closely to address all of the issues raised in this report.
"The recently appointed joint director of adult care will play a key role in taking forward this work."
---------------------------------------------------------
Elderly and disabled asked to pay more
Elderly and disabled people in Northumberland are being asked to pay more for their home care while at the same time facing possible reductions in the amount of care they receive, it was revealed yesterday.
Social services bosses are planning to increase the maximum weekly charge for home care by 33% - from £45 to £60 in April - to help tackle a potential £2m budget shortfall.
The charge could go up to more than £80 later this year, but at the same time people are having their care plans reviewed by the county council to see if further savings can be made by cutting the number of hours they are visited by home helps.
Yesterday the moves were slammed as disgraceful by Ken Kirkbride, 60, whose severely disabled wife Lesley, 58, is one of almost 700 people across the county facing the prospect of paying significantly more for a reduced service.
Former Inland Revenue worker Lesley, who is confined to a wheelchair and has secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, is set to see her weekly charge for home care rise from £45 to £60 but has also been told the amount of care she gets could be reduced by up to six hours a week.
That could affect services such as accompanied trips out, shopping and cleaning which are assessed as non-critical care.
Yesterday Ken, who has virtually had to give up work to help look after his wife, said: "We are being asked to pay 33% more for home care while at the same time Lesley's agreed care plan is being reassessed and could be cut by about six hours.
"I feel so strongly about this and I am speaking out not just for Lesley but also for other people who don't have anyone to fight for them. Some of them have already had reductions in the number of hours of home care because they have not made a fuss about it.
"The county council have got themselves into a financial hole and are using elderly, disabled and vulnerable people to get them out of it, and I think that is totally wrong and disgraceful. These are decisions being made on cost grounds, not on people's health."
The county council says the increased charge for home care will only affect 675 people assessed as being able to afford to pay it. It says the £60 maximum charge will still be much lower than in neighbouring authorities and will only be payable by people who have substantial savings or pensions. Executive member for health and wellbeing, Coun Tony Reid, said: "We expect fewer than one in five of the 3,000 people who receive home care to pay the full £60." The county council and Northumberland Care Trust say they are also reviewing all non-residential care plans to help cut costs and tackle the budget crisis.
Coun Reid said: "We will continue to make sure that everyone's critical needs are met. In particular we will make sure that we continue to provide enough support to protect people's health, safety and dignity.
"The purpose of the review is to check whether people still need all the services they receive and whether we may be able to help people at less cost."
---------------------------------------------------------
'Windfall aid for vulnerable' call rejected
A call for part of a £12.5m cash windfall to be used to limit the impact of big increases in charges for elderly and disabled people and A-level students in Northumberland was rejected yesterday.
Opposition Lib Dem councillors called for almost £1m of the county council's bumper dividend from Newcastle Airport to be spent this year to offset inflation-busting rises in charges for home care and post-16 home to school transport.
Lib Dems said £750,000 should be used to avoid a 33% increase in the maximum weekly charge for home care - from £45 to £60 - and rises in fees for day care, meals on wheels and transport for elderly and disabled people.
They also called for £163,000 to be spent to reduce a 53% rise in post-16 transport charges agreed last year and to reinstate axed rail travel passes for Berwick students going to college in Newcastle.
Lib Dems said a slice of the airport windfall should be used on a "one-off" basis to avoid elderly and vulnerable people and rural sixth-form students having to pay the price for county council budget overspending and poor management.
But their motion was defeated by Labour councillors at yesterday's annual budget setting meeting at County Hall in Morpeth.
Instead, the council agreed a budget which will result in a council tax increase of just 1.8% in April, one of the lowest in the country and the second year in succession that Northumberland's rise has been kept under 2%.
It will mean the annual bill for a Band A property going up from £727 to £740 and for a Band D home from £1,091 to £1,111. Council chiefs said for most people the rise would mean them paying just 28p a week extra.
Efficiency savings of £8.4m have been made to balance the books but most have come from management and administration with little major impact on front-line services.
Lib Dem group leader, Coun Lesley Rickerby, said the £12.5m airport windfall should be used to mitigate the proposed increases in care charges - which she described as unjust, unfair and an attack on the most vulnerable - and the impact of post-16 transport changes.
"We accept this is a one-off use of the money but we cannot accept some of the proposed efficiency savings required to keep the council tax increase down to 1.8%," she added.
But Labour councillors said the Lib Dem motion was not sustainable as it involved raiding a non-recurrent pot of money and would mean bigger council tax rises in years to come.
Deputy leader Peter Hillman said the council had listened to the people of Northumberland and had kept council tax down while also agreeing not to cut budgets for highways repairs and street lighting maintenance and defer possible savings on country parks facilities.
"We will be able to have a low council tax increase and invest in our front-line services, largely by becoming much more efficient in the way we do things."
The council has pocketed the £12.5m windfall as one of the seven local authorities which have a 51% stake in the airport. The dividend follows a re-structuring of the airport's finances.
Coun Hillman said decisions on how to spend it will be taken later but interest will be used to keep council tax bills down. Meanwhile, Northumbria Police Authority yesterday approved plans to increase its share of council tax bills by 3.95% and invest £8m in police services.
This will include improved citizen-focused and neighbourhood policing to boost public confidence and investment in protective services, including counter terrorism
The rise will mean Band A properties increasing in April by just £1.89 a year to £49.74 and the cost for Band D households going up by £2.84 a year to £74.62, the lowest in the UK.
Authority chairman Coun Mick Henry said last night: "Our priority when we look at how to allocate our budget is always to ensure we direct money to deliver a service that residents want and need. This small increase will enable us to do that."
Feb 15 2007
By William Green, The Journal
A £7m care scheme run by a North-East council to offer housing support to some of the most vulnerable in society has been handed a zero rating by independent inspectors.
An Audit Commission report, due to be released today, has branded the delivery of the Northumberland County Council "Supporting People" scheme as "poor" with "uncertain prospects" to improve - and given the programme a zero star poor rating out of a possible three.
The programme is supposed to look after individuals at risk of being unable to stay in their own home because they cannot cope with independent living - including people with mental health problems, with learning disabilities and vulnerable young and older people.
In Northumberland, it is managed by the county's care trust on behalf of the county council.
The county council received a Government grant of £7.054m in 2006/07 and the administrative cost is £286,689 - with the programme funding 4,518 supported accommodation places.
The report said the council has improved the performance and quality of some services, but warned there has been a lack of robust governance, leadership and direction which has hampered services.
There has also been limited involvement of people who use the service, according to the Audit Commission which worked with the Inspectorate of Probation and Commission for Social Care Inspection.
Domini Gunn-Peim, Audit Commission senior manager, said: "The council has made slow progress in delivery of the programme. Whilst there are positive improvements in individual services there has been a lack of vision, and the delivery of strategic aims and objectives is in its infancy.
"However, the results of reviews of governance, needs analyses and a proposed performance monitoring system will give a good basis to take the programme forward."
Inspectors found a five-year strategy was weak in establishing how commissioning priorities will be addressed - with further reviews of services for older people and those with learning disabilities needed.
Alan Beith, Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick, said: "This is an extremely worrying sign that a lot is now wrong at the county council.
"They would be better to concentrate on improving core services rather than devoting so much energy to trying to take over the districts."
The county council said it was already starting to address many of the recommendations with a new executive director Daljit Lally.
A detailed action plan was now in place.
It added adult care services were undergoing a significant reorganisation when the inspection took place.
Councillor Tony Reid, executive member for health and wellbeing, said: "Clearly we are disappointed with the overall rating in the inspection report.
"There are of course unique challenges of working with six district housing departments plus health, probation and other partners.
"We are aware of the difficulties that there have been and are taking action to address these, and the report notes significant improvements over the last 18 months."
But he added that the council accepted all the recommendations in the report and had started to deal with many of them.
"The recommendations on improving governance have already been implemented, and a user involvement strategy is being developed," he said.
"We have a detailed action plan in place to move forward on all the recommendations and are very pleased with the way all partners are now pulling together to make improvements."
A Northumberland Care Trust spokeswoman said: "Northumberland Care Trust and Northumberland County Council are working very closely to address all of the issues raised in this report.
"The recently appointed joint director of adult care will play a key role in taking forward this work."
---------------------------------------------------------
Elderly and disabled asked to pay more
Elderly and disabled people in Northumberland are being asked to pay more for their home care while at the same time facing possible reductions in the amount of care they receive, it was revealed yesterday.
Social services bosses are planning to increase the maximum weekly charge for home care by 33% - from £45 to £60 in April - to help tackle a potential £2m budget shortfall.
The charge could go up to more than £80 later this year, but at the same time people are having their care plans reviewed by the county council to see if further savings can be made by cutting the number of hours they are visited by home helps.
Yesterday the moves were slammed as disgraceful by Ken Kirkbride, 60, whose severely disabled wife Lesley, 58, is one of almost 700 people across the county facing the prospect of paying significantly more for a reduced service.
Former Inland Revenue worker Lesley, who is confined to a wheelchair and has secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, is set to see her weekly charge for home care rise from £45 to £60 but has also been told the amount of care she gets could be reduced by up to six hours a week.
That could affect services such as accompanied trips out, shopping and cleaning which are assessed as non-critical care.
Yesterday Ken, who has virtually had to give up work to help look after his wife, said: "We are being asked to pay 33% more for home care while at the same time Lesley's agreed care plan is being reassessed and could be cut by about six hours.
"I feel so strongly about this and I am speaking out not just for Lesley but also for other people who don't have anyone to fight for them. Some of them have already had reductions in the number of hours of home care because they have not made a fuss about it.
"The county council have got themselves into a financial hole and are using elderly, disabled and vulnerable people to get them out of it, and I think that is totally wrong and disgraceful. These are decisions being made on cost grounds, not on people's health."
The county council says the increased charge for home care will only affect 675 people assessed as being able to afford to pay it. It says the £60 maximum charge will still be much lower than in neighbouring authorities and will only be payable by people who have substantial savings or pensions. Executive member for health and wellbeing, Coun Tony Reid, said: "We expect fewer than one in five of the 3,000 people who receive home care to pay the full £60." The county council and Northumberland Care Trust say they are also reviewing all non-residential care plans to help cut costs and tackle the budget crisis.
Coun Reid said: "We will continue to make sure that everyone's critical needs are met. In particular we will make sure that we continue to provide enough support to protect people's health, safety and dignity.
"The purpose of the review is to check whether people still need all the services they receive and whether we may be able to help people at less cost."
---------------------------------------------------------
'Windfall aid for vulnerable' call rejected
A call for part of a £12.5m cash windfall to be used to limit the impact of big increases in charges for elderly and disabled people and A-level students in Northumberland was rejected yesterday.
Opposition Lib Dem councillors called for almost £1m of the county council's bumper dividend from Newcastle Airport to be spent this year to offset inflation-busting rises in charges for home care and post-16 home to school transport.
Lib Dems said £750,000 should be used to avoid a 33% increase in the maximum weekly charge for home care - from £45 to £60 - and rises in fees for day care, meals on wheels and transport for elderly and disabled people.
They also called for £163,000 to be spent to reduce a 53% rise in post-16 transport charges agreed last year and to reinstate axed rail travel passes for Berwick students going to college in Newcastle.
Lib Dems said a slice of the airport windfall should be used on a "one-off" basis to avoid elderly and vulnerable people and rural sixth-form students having to pay the price for county council budget overspending and poor management.
But their motion was defeated by Labour councillors at yesterday's annual budget setting meeting at County Hall in Morpeth.
Instead, the council agreed a budget which will result in a council tax increase of just 1.8% in April, one of the lowest in the country and the second year in succession that Northumberland's rise has been kept under 2%.
It will mean the annual bill for a Band A property going up from £727 to £740 and for a Band D home from £1,091 to £1,111. Council chiefs said for most people the rise would mean them paying just 28p a week extra.
Efficiency savings of £8.4m have been made to balance the books but most have come from management and administration with little major impact on front-line services.
Lib Dem group leader, Coun Lesley Rickerby, said the £12.5m airport windfall should be used to mitigate the proposed increases in care charges - which she described as unjust, unfair and an attack on the most vulnerable - and the impact of post-16 transport changes.
"We accept this is a one-off use of the money but we cannot accept some of the proposed efficiency savings required to keep the council tax increase down to 1.8%," she added.
But Labour councillors said the Lib Dem motion was not sustainable as it involved raiding a non-recurrent pot of money and would mean bigger council tax rises in years to come.
Deputy leader Peter Hillman said the council had listened to the people of Northumberland and had kept council tax down while also agreeing not to cut budgets for highways repairs and street lighting maintenance and defer possible savings on country parks facilities.
"We will be able to have a low council tax increase and invest in our front-line services, largely by becoming much more efficient in the way we do things."
The council has pocketed the £12.5m windfall as one of the seven local authorities which have a 51% stake in the airport. The dividend follows a re-structuring of the airport's finances.
Coun Hillman said decisions on how to spend it will be taken later but interest will be used to keep council tax bills down. Meanwhile, Northumbria Police Authority yesterday approved plans to increase its share of council tax bills by 3.95% and invest £8m in police services.
This will include improved citizen-focused and neighbourhood policing to boost public confidence and investment in protective services, including counter terrorism
The rise will mean Band A properties increasing in April by just £1.89 a year to £49.74 and the cost for Band D households going up by £2.84 a year to £74.62, the lowest in the UK.
Authority chairman Coun Mick Henry said last night: "Our priority when we look at how to allocate our budget is always to ensure we direct money to deliver a service that residents want and need. This small increase will enable us to do that."
No comments:
Post a Comment