By Sam Rkaina, Local Government Reporter / s.rkaina@bepp.co.uk
Elderly and vulnerable people will be expected to take greater responsibility for their own care as part of a Bristol City Council cuts plan.
The council is cutting £240,000 from the £4.1 million it spends each year on supporting voluntary care organisations.
As previously reported, that means less money for 56 organisations in the city that provide services like day care and lunch clubs for elderly people.
Most of these bodies will see an average funding cut of three per cent from November.
But funding for 25 of them is expected to be removed entirely, and instead the money will be given to the people who use those services.
Then it will be up to those people to decide what their care money should be spent on, in agreement with council workers.
The authority hopes this will help make up the £240,000 saving, but it puts the focus on elderly and vulnerable people to find cheaper services themselves.
For example, the council says a lunch club with a capacity of 80 but only used by 60 people represents poor value for money.
It considers it poor value for money because it is paying for 80 places but only three quarters of those places are being used.
So instead that grant will be divided between the 60 people who do use the service, who then will decide where the money should be spent towards their care.
They could spend it on another lunch club, or on another service altogether, but it will be agreed as part of a care plan so the system cannot be abused.
The council has yet to decide exactly how much money will go on these “personalised budgets”.
Executive member for health care Jon Rogers said: “We wrote to all of the organisations in June to say if you meet the criteria we’d like to continue funding you but we have to make savings.
“There are 27 lunch clubs in Bristol and 20 operate with no council funding at all.
“There are a number of other services which do not appear to meet the criteria for a good service.
“The remaining 25 services haven’t got evidence that they provide value for money.
“A lot of people go to these organisations so you can’t suddenly stop them.
“We will work with them and people attending to find out what alternatives there are.”
“They will either have the money directly or the council will manage the budget for them – this is a really major change.”
The council spends £40 million on the charity and voluntary sector each year but this is not the only cut that is being made from that budget.
In total the council is cutting or completely axing funding to 30 per cent of the services in this area.
Overall the council is having to cut £70 million from its budget over four years as a result of the Chancellor George Osborne’s austerity measures.
This follows the typical pattern for previous Bristol Lib Dem cuts. A very short period with very limited information to allow people to adjust/oppose and of course targeting the oldest and least able to protest first.
We all remember that Cllr Jon Rogers is the man who hiked meals on wheels charges just before Christmas and with comparatively little publicity until the deed was done.
It’s a nasty practice that plays politics with people’s lives rather than a “cards on the table” approach.
WARNING: Be careful of the adverts between text above. They are scams. Open the sites they link to and you will find they masquerade as news sites with articles about these products. They are scams. Click any news link on these sites and you will see. Buy anything and they will want a credit or debit card. they will keep taking money once they have your details.
Mr Lewis chooses to ignore the lengthy process that has happened to ensure that the changes to the H&SC Voluntary Sector funding are fair and transparent.
The process began in October 2010 with a draft budget followed by extensive public consultation. Full council agreed the budget in February 2011.
In May 2011 the Lib Dems lost their majority on the Council, but Labour, Conservatives and Green party let the Lib Dems continue to run the city. We can be outvoted at any time if others think they can do better!
There have been a series of meetings and indeed a conference with care providers and each individual organisation has been rated against a Red, Amber Green RAG rating that reflects equalities issues, value for money, meeting need, etc.
Those draft RAG ratings were shared with councillors of all parties back in June 2011, as well as more detailed information on the individual ratings shared with the provider organisations.
Officers then talked with every organisation rated Red or Amber to check if there was additional information that could move them to a Green status. Many were able to supply such information and their categories were revised.
Prior to writing to affected organisations at the end of July, I personally circulated details of each organisation to their ward councillors to seek further comments, including careful attention to the equalities impact assessments.
We are now at the stage of discussing in detail with each affected organisation and their service users a plan on the next steps.
Labour have historically funded organisations irrespective of the quality of their service. The Lib Dems are funding those organisations that are offering excellent services, meeting needs and offering value for money.
Every pound spent on such a service gives one, two or five pounds of service to vulnerable people. Every pound spent on a poorly performing service that does not meet such criteria delivers only 20p, 30p or 50p of service.
By switching money from poorly performing services to our many excellent services we can deliver more for less, and also encourage those poorly performing services to get their act together. And many are!
This process is tough, but does ensure that every pound of tax payers money is spent wisely, meeting the needs of our residents.