28 January 2007

Tories don't care that they don't care

Pick on someone your own size might be an appropriate appeal to the leader of Hammersmith & Fulham council. As the true scale of the council cuts is revealed, it's the elderly, disabled and mentally ill who are being hit hardest.
In addition to cutting spending on home care by over half a million pounds through privatisation, the Tories are planning to restrict who gets home help services to save £1.25 million. This means that hundreds of vulnerable people will not get a service. Together with the privatisation of home helps, fewer people will now get a worse service. And delays in the privatisation will not even generate the 'savings' originally predicted.
The Tories are also 'reconfiguring' mental health day services by closing the Tamworth centre which was only opened ten years ago. The site in Farm Lane is worth a fortune and the local nimbies will love to get rid of the service! The Tories also talk about savings of £250,000 by 'introducing service user contributions' - what they really mean is charging! Only 12 of the 65 people using the Tamworth centre will be offered services in Shepherds Bush (very convenient for users in Fulham!). What can be predicted is that this cost saving will in the long run have higher costs for both social services and the NHS.
Finally, meals on wheels are to go up 35p in price from April. But the true increase is 55p, as there has just been a first stage increase of 20p. A 24% rise in total!
These cuts will have a devastating effect on people using these social services. And they will cost all local residents more in the longer term, picking up the pieces of this neglect.
The Tories don't care that they don't care. They will just go out and buy what they need for their families, and never mind other local people.

1 comment:

MING said...

How does the cost charged to the end users compare with the cost incurred by the council?

This matter would be in the budget papers, the council agenda, or could be made available via FOI.

Which should be used?