Sick, poor and elderly to bear brunt of council cuts

As the council has published full details of its plans to tighten its belt in response to £45m in cuts to its budget handed down by central government, it is apparent that many of these are expected to be borne by those most in need.

The 22% cut in RMBC’s budget is in addition to the £90 million in cuts handed out since 2010 and in this latest round, over 200 council jobs are being axed as services are expected to shrink.

The sick, the homeless, the disabled and the elderly are expected to be hardest hit with:

• New charges being brought in for non-residential Adult Care Services such as care provided in council Day Care Centres or in users’ own homes. 
• A change in eligibility for social care provision to exclude those whose needs have been categorised as ‘moderate’. 
• External service-providers or social-enterprise groups being used to deliver care services rather than by the council itself. 
• The ending of the service run by the Rehabilitation Team which delivers help and support to those recovering from serious brain injury. 
• The axing of the service providing repair and maintenance to domestic stair-lifts. 
• Scrapping one of the council-run mobile youth centre together with some youth workers. 
• Deep cuts over half a million pounds for careers advice and employment help to teenagers. 
• A full review of transportation arrangements of children with Educational Special Needs used currently to get them to school or college leaving many to consider making the journey unescorted. 
• Slashing another half a million pounds from the Economic Affairs Service which is currently responsible for developing skills and employment to the borough. This has had a key role in attracting both tourism and investment to the town and sits very uncomfortably with the long-term plans currently being talked-up. 
• Despite assurances given to homelessness organisations and the ‘Chill-Out’ campaign, a further £300,000 is planned to be axed from the budget for homeless people. This despite the 200% increase in number of the borough’s homeless and calls from Simon Danczuk MP for a ‘rethink’ on the issue. 
• Further cuts in the library service, and end to the dog warden service as well as major funding cuts for services designed to assist those experiencing health and social welfare issues are also planned.

In addition, in the main document, viewable on the council website, there are other cash-saving initiatives being mooted that will result in many other service-cuts being implemented.

In a move almost designed to anger unions, council workers could also be asked to quit through what it calls ‘an enhanced redundancy scheme’ before the end of this year.

Many charity workers and volunteers are also expected to be dismayed and concerned at the proposals which seemed bound to see an increase in the need for their own over-stretched services.

The Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Colin Lambert said the size of the cuts being handed down meant that services had to change.

He said: “We are considering entirely new ways of providing some of our services so we can maintain the most critical but deliver them at a lower cost.”

A concerned Councillor Andy Kelly, leader of the Liberal Democrats, added: “Sharing services between Rochdale and Oldham could have saved as much as £40m, that's just £5m less than needs to be cut over the next two years.

"I would suggest the council needs to think a lot more creatively not about how where this money can be saved, but how income could be generated as well.”

Councillor Ashley Dearnley, Conservative leader on the council, said: “We still agree that these cuts have to be made, or else this country would end up in the situation that Greece or Spain is now.

“The priority must be to protect front line service and I'm disappointed that back office jobs and payments to trade union representatives have not been tackled.”

The spending proposals are subject to a three-month consultation.

A final decision on the cuts will be made in February.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Rochdale councillors had received over £166,000 in expenses.

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/73279/shock-at-more-council-cuts 

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/73203/over-200-council-jobs-to-be-axed