Minister for Care Services condemns attempts to hide failings

Date article online: 20/05/2008

The Minister for Care Services, Ivan Lewis MP has brushed aside criticism from Paul Rowen’s agent, Dave Hennigan over his recent visit to Rochdale and said that he stands by his criticism of Rochdale’s failing adult care services.

Earlier this month the Minister received a critical email from Mr Rowen’s agent in which he was accused of making “generalisations” on a “small number of isolated cases” following his visit, during which he referred to Rochdale’s adult care standards as being “immoral”.

Dave Hennigan accused the Minister of making inaccurate statements. “Can I respectfully suggest that before you come up with statements like the one above that you check on their accuracy,” said Mr Hennigan in his email.

The Minister responded:

“Dear Dave,

Thank you for your e-mail of 8th May.

You seem blissfully unaware that a damning report was published last autumn on the state of Rochdale Adult Services. This led to an immediate change at director level within the department.

My comments were therefore not only based on the serious anxieties and concerns of service users and carers as expressed during my recent visit but independent inspection evidence. Your dismissive attitude towards people who use Rochdale services and their families disappoints and surprises me.

As the Party running the Council I hope the Lib Dems will accept responsibility for the state of the service and take action to seek urgent improvements.Yours sincerely,

Ivan Lewis MP”

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk, added that Mr Hennigan’s email was a sad indictment of the Lib Dems refusal to accept responsibility for their failings even when mounting evidence is staring them in the face.

“Once again we have the Lib Dems trying to spin their way out of trouble and stubbornly refusing to accept responsibility for providing inadequate services to the most vulnerable people in our Borough,” he said. “I simply cannot believe the arrogance of Dave Hennigan. Now it would appear that he thinks he knows more on adult care services than the Minister for Care Services.”

Dave Hennigan said: "I was responding in the light of an article in a Community Care Magazine that actually stated, 'Care services minister Ivan Lewis, who visited Rochdale service users at the invitation of Danczuk just before the local elections, said he was so concerned about examples of poor care he had heard about that he would ask the CSCI about the progress made by Rochdale's adult care services.'

"It is fair to suggest from these comments that he was referring to an isolated number of cases. As he had already admitted that the purpose of the meeting was 'political', it's fair to assume that the timing of this visit just a week before the local elections was also politically motivated.

"I also pointed out to Mr Lewis that these cases were being dealt with after speaking directly to Councillor Mulgrew."

Councillor Dale Mulgrew, the Cabinet Member responsible said: "We have still not been contacted about any of these cases directly by Labour's parliamentary candidate nor Councillor Linda Robinson, my shadow member.

"All these cases have been dealt with satisfactorily, though in the same way we deal with any concerns brought to our attention.

"I am also aware of a meeting that is imminent between Paul Rowen MP and Mr Lewis to discuss any concerns the Minister may have. I have been working hard to deal with any problems that the service is having during the service's transformation. I repeat my offer that anyone who has concerns about any issue with regards to Adult Care Services should call me on 0797 348 8805.

"I hope this clarifies the situation."