Cliff Morris: Social Update

This is the text of the talk from Councillor Clifford Morris, Chair of Bolton Social Services Committee taken directly from the Deane-Cum-Heaton Labour Party's Branch minutes

  Care of the Elderly

Clifford reported in detail about the situation in Social Services since the general election. A lot of good things have been done. However, the budget, despite being £46 million is stretched. The situation with old people's homes in particular is being examined with the thought of introducing multi-purpose day and residential care centres. Three such centres are in the pipeline. It was felt that all-Asian care centres would not be appropriate but all sections of the elderly community will be accounted for. Day care and drop in facilities will be established at Winifred Kettle, Westhoughton plus one other centre both in January. In addition other, now unused, facilities were being looked at, especially in Horwich, with funds from the closure of Stocks House.

  Winter Pressure

Bolton Social Services are working with The Area Health Authority on the question of "winter pressure". The Chair of the Hospital Trust and the Health Authority are working in partnership with Social Services to try to establish areas where support is lacking. There is a significant lack in support over weekends, from 4pm on Fridays, and this has resulted in the employment of week end Social Workers to give cover at all times.

A team of Social Workers/Social Rights Workers has been established to advise the elderly and others on benefits claims. An extra £1 million has been granted for this. Last month was a difficult time with Gordon Brown's announcement that local authorities would have to stay in budget.

  The '98 Social Services Budget and How We'll Cope

The possible impact of this is currently being assessed, as it would amount to a 2.5% cut in the budget. The Care in the Community transitional relief package requires an additional £1.9 million to cover the extra work that will have to be undertaken by Social Services and other departments as more and more people are discharged early. The Council wants to extend the 24-hour care provision for the most needy elderly. The cost of opening the two leaning disability centres 52 instead of 50 weeks per year is being investigated. Joint funding with money from the City Challenge programme is coming to an end and the authority need to find funds to keep open facilities that deal with mental health and the elderly.

The possibility of "cuts" in services is a reality and officers have been advised that they "cannot hit the chalk face". Some of the ways they are looking at making efficiency savings are by revisiting existing packages.

There is currently a meals at weekends service on the west side of the Borough. This was due to be extended Borough-wide within two years but might have to be delayed for up to four to make the necessary savings

The existing training budget for workers in dealing with HIV infected individuals can now be cut as all staff should now be trained and only incoming staff will require such training.

The committee is looking at increasing home care charges to raise a further £80,000 by increasing meal charges to £1-50 and increasing charges for visits to day care centres and meals there (currently £1.50 and £1.30) to a £5.00 all-inclusive fee.

New placements in residential care homes will be at the medium band level. Those that need extra care will be put in the top band. Private homes will only be paid in the medium band. Eligibility for the higher level of care will be more carefully considered.

  Other Issues

There are currently three high dependency units. One is always full and two are not quite as popular. This situation will be investigated.

There is a plan to replace the prefabricated family centres on the perimeter of some of the estates with converted void council houses where they are required, as a means of tapping into housing funds. The council wants to do away with large children's homes and move to smaller, more friendly and caring units.

A problem exists with support workers who have to lift the elderly and disabled. Many have been absent from work due to bad backs and the committee has to fund the employment and training of extra staff to overcome this. Respite for carers in some services is not being provided and the committee has to investigate what is needed to give the necessary help.

The committee has set up five advisory sub-committees to look at specific issues, e.g. mental health, childcare. Currently there are only Councillors sit on these but the committee wants to extend representation to users.

Clifford expressed his pleasure that the authority achieved so much in the year despite the very tight budgetary constraints.

  Q and A

Clifford's talk was followed by a detailed question and answer session.

Pauline asked about the ageing of the Bolton population and Clifford confirmed that we do not particularly have a worse problem than the average authority.

Anne spoke about the lifting and handling issue and HIV. She also asked if there were other organisations that the committee could collaborate with.

George drew a comparison between the UK and Germany and Clifford said that he didn't know that changing to the German system would necessarily increase funding. On the whole the British system is better but their pension provisions are far superior to ours.

Other questions related to early release into the community, nursing homes and GP visits (Graham), integration of childcare and Social Services (Joyce). Clifford said that we want to keep moving forward and being innovative without letting the most vulnerable fall through the net. He said that life was somewhat easier since Bolton now has three Labour MPs and he finds that they and the authority are beginning to work very well together.

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