Liberal Democrats to continue with 'call in' of decision on Day Care services

8.51.45am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 1st May 2007

Liberal Democrats on Suffolk County Council have vowed to go ahead with their decision to call-in the Conservative administration's proposals for County-run Day Care services in Suffolk.

In February 2007 the Liberal Democrat and Independent Group wrote to Cllr Graham Newman, Tory portfolio holder for Adult Care, expressing their concerns about the proposals and offering to withdraw the call-in if these concerns were suitably answered; the Conservatives have failed, however, to respond and deliver adequate answers.

The letter asked for clarification on a number of points around the cost of buying in day care, the actual capacity to provide places in the independent sector and the regulation of day care services to ensure their quality (see Notes - item 1).

The Liberal Democrats on Suffolk County Council have now been contacted by independent sector providers to express their support for the points raised in the letter to Cllr Newman.

Group Leader Cllr Kathy Pollard said, "We were quite genuine in our offer to withdraw the call-in of these proposals. We have no wish whatsoever to cause any distress for the vulnerable people and their families who use these services or delay the implementation of any proposals which would improve care in Suffolk. We simply wished, as I'm sure anyone who uses these services would, to be reassured that the Conservatives had done their homework and actually had hard evidence that these proposals are workable and financially sound.

With one week to go before the Council meeting, and with the agenda published, we are assuming that the Conservatives are not going to respond to our letter and simply attack us for delaying matters during the debate. That of course is their prerogative, but I'm sure people will see it is they who have refused to respond to our letter and thus caused the delay.

We still have grave concerns about the actual finances behind this move and that the private and independent sector providers have the capacity to deal with the volume and complexity of customers which currently exist in the County. The fact that independent suppliers have come forward to speak to us and express their agreement with the points we raised and their concerns at the fact that they have not been consulted about these proposals, shows just how important a serious debate on this issue really is."

The Letter to Cllr Graham Newman:

Dear Councillor Newman,

As we have previously explained, we are not in any way opposed to service provision by the voluntary and private sector: it is the quality of care which counts, not who delivers it. Our concerns with these proposals revolve around the financial arguments involved, the ability of the independent sector to expand to meet the demand you will be placing on them and the quality of the care bought in.

After receiving a briefing on this issue, at the earliest opportunity we were offered, we still have grave concerns regarding your policy of pushing Day Care Service customers out of Suffolk County Council service provision. We are writing to you to request further clarification of your proposals as the meeting we attended raised even more doubts about the proposals contained in Paper C07/04.

Our concerns are:

1.The move will prove more, not less, expensive than at present. In the Cabinet Paper C07/04 you gave the average cost of the independent sector provision of day care services as £27 per day and the cost of provision by the county as £30 per day. The figures for the county provision however included a 5.8% overhead for management costs, something that was not included in the independent sector figures. If we are to create a like for like comparison, this overhead figure should be removed. When the cost of county provision is calculated without this overhead the average cost is actually £26.27. These calculations are based upon information provided to us by the County Council and show that the alternative providers you listed in Paper C07/04 (Appendix 2) are on average more expensive than the service currently provided by Suffolk County Council.

2.We are also concerned that the Day Care Services in the independent sector are not regulated. Furthermore, the County Council has indicated that Suffolk County Council would not have the resources to check these Day Care Services once they had been taken up by the private sector. How would you ensure that the quality of service we would expect would be delivered to our customers? It could be that the County Council pays more, for an inferior service and would not even know it. We cannot support this.

3.Suffolk County Council currently provides top-notch Day Care services which achieve scores of level 3 and 4, a testament to our staff. It has been acknowledged that under your proposals we would be forced to purchase services from providers who provide an inferior service, achieving only level 1 or 2. It is unacceptable to force our customers to use an inferior service, especially at greater expense.

4.We have serious concerns that the independent sector does not have the capacity to expand to the degree you expect it too, especially in rural areas. You have not provided us with concrete examples of where capacity exists and few of the suggested alternative providers have any capacity.

5.Can you tell us whether there are any plans to sell off land currently occupied by homes which are delivering day care facilities? Again it has been indicated that high land values are of interest with regards to at least the future of one of our centres.

You have alleged in the press that the 'calling in' of these proposals will lead to delay and detriment to those who use the service. Based upon the presentation we have received there is no evidence that this is the case, as planning is still at a very early stage. Nevertheless, if you can give a satisfactory response to the concerns we expressed above we would be happy to withdraw the call-in. We do not want a debate simply for the sake of it, but we would like our concerns to be addressed.

Sincerely

Liberal Democrat and Independent Group