A responsible opposition to Care Home closures

The County’s plans for care home closures have been hugely controversial. It’s also caused big difficulties for our Conservative Group at County. Why?

Because there is massive public opinion against any care home closures and yet the status quo is unaffordable with our increasingly elderly population. And then there’s the appalling financial circumstances at the County Council. So we’ve had Politics to deal with and we’ve had to tread a fine line in making sure we are being responsible in opposition.

This whole issue has been going on for months now but the detailed plans on what care provision lies the other side of Labour’s closures have not been made clear and, in any case, have been changed gradually and, more recently, dramatically. At meetings I attended last week I was shocked that even senior care managers weren’t clear, or confident, about the future.

Discussions on where we stand as a Political Group continued early last Monday morning when we had our preparation meeting ready for Thursday’s vote on care provision at full County Council. Even our own political group meeting was tough. Care for the elderly is a hugely emotive subject, as you can see from the demonstrators outside County Buildings. But, it is vital for us to make sure people understand it is many years of poor political leadership by Labour at the County Council which lies behind all the previous and current problems. Our stance on care provision is actually quite straight forward; we believe in the principle of giving vulnerable people more choice to stay in their own houses whilst ensuring that tens of millions of pounds of public money each year is spent more efficiently.

It’s the way Labour are trying to deliver the changes which is entirely the problem. Originally, changes in the way care provision is provided were going to be phased in over six years but because of the County’s dire financial problems the Labour administration have tried to cram it all into less than two. It’s our view that it can’t be done by 2008 without causing terrible worry, and worse, to frail and elderly people already in public sector care homes.

So, our Political Group meeting was heated and difficult. We did, however, agree a position which would hopefully support the overall principle of change, illustrate Labour’s monumental mismanagement of tens of billions of pounds of public money in Staffordshire over the last decade and, most importantly, try to force a stay of execution to care home closures in order to take stock, consult better and make much clearer what provision will look like for respite help and day care amongst other things.

Thursday morning came and all Members arriving at County Buildings were greeted by chanting crowds, police escorts and some abuse regardless of Party or position. Full County Council is always tense because the tradition and history of County Buildings and the County Chamber is so atmospheric. Last Thursday, because of the key vote, was even more electric.

I’d spent over an hour, prior to setting out from home, making notes for three areas on the day’s agenda where I planned to speak. By the time I settled in my normal place on the plush blue leather benches in the County Chamber I was completely convinced (as usual) I wouldn’t remember a word of what I’d decided to say.

There was a strange excitement mixed with anticipation all set against the chanting of several hundred people outside. All the normal tradition and preamble of full County Council seemed to be a mere anticipation of what was to come. Important (and expensive) decisions are regularly made in the County Chamber but not normally with an overflowing and noisy public gallery, media tables completely full and television cameras filming crowds of noisy protesters outside. It was just different to normal.

So, to cut to the chase….. we finally got to the item called MTFS which stands for Medium Term Financial Strategy. Sounds very boring but actually it is the item which required debate on this year’s County budget, council tax setting and, of course, deciding on the future of care homes in Staffordshire.

There were, I think, 31 speakers during the debate on MTFS, mainly around care homes. Philip Atkins, the Leader of the Conservative Group spoke first for our side. I must say he was superb. He spoke eloquently and yet passionately. The combined faces on the Labour benches were a picture. I’ve never seen them look so worried or even bemused. Phil’s speech secured the first round of applause from the public gallery followed by rebuffs to them from the County Chairman to keep quiet.

After a couple of Labour speakers I was number four on. Speaking in the County Chamber is a real privilege and, as always, I ended up not following the notes I made earlier that morning. Something just switches on and all the things I thought I’d forget came out in reasonable order which left a satisfying but slightly relieved feeling when my speech finished. The second round of applause and shouts from the public which my efforts earned led to a further warning from the Chairman that he would have the public gallery cleared.

Most of the debate in the Chamber was excellent. Labour’s Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health performed valiantly despite the barracking from the public gallery, the onslaught from our side and the fact I believe her position on this has been made impossible by the bigger and disastrous financial picture Labour have inflicted upon themselves and Staffordshire tax payers over the years. Easy statement to make about the controlling Labour Administration but I’ve been at County 20 months now and I’m shocked at how bad it is!

Even though a lot of Labour backbenchers had chosen to defy their whip and stay away, Conservatives were still just in the minority. That said, it was apparent by earlier speeches from the Labour benches that all was not well on their side. More and more messages were being passed along the Labour benches in an attempt to to whip their Members into towing the Party line. Just before it came to the vote, Labour Members huddled feverishly and an amendment and personal undertaking by Labour’s Deputy Leader was forthcoming.

The undertaking was that those in a public sector care home would not be forced to leave and the amendment was to remove the absolute deadline of 2008 to close all the homes. My side would have liked a little more clarity in the amendment and with that in mind we tried to push it a little further. But Labour have the majority and did enough to bring their rebels back on side, just. We lost the vote by one and the amendment went through.

So now the axe hovering over care homes in 2008 has been lifted and a clear undertaking from Labour’s probable Leader-in-waiting achieved what was needed. More consultation will take place and enough pressure has now been applied to ensure the disastrous and unmanageable haste of recent times will be redressed.

It’s been a good week. Democracy has won through and a lot of people although still apprehensive will hopefully understand we will continue to hold Labour to account and make sure they stick to the amendment and their word. It was very satisfying personally to know that our actions made a real difference for real people.

Click here to comment on this post