The £2m funding intended to support ten new schemes aimed at helping to clear hospital beds is “not new money”, claims Cllr Karl Love, the Cabinet member for Adult Social Care and Public Health.
Cllr Love told News OnTheWight that, as welcome as the £2m announced on Thursday was, it was ‘”not new money” and it is nothing close to what is actually needed on a recurring annual basis.
The £2m funding is not to be confused up with the extra £1m added to the council’s funding settlement that News OnTheWight reported on yesterday.
Love: Nothing close to what we need
Cllr Love said,
“This funding is not new. It’s a mixture of winter pressure and the £500m for beds.
“It’s nothing close to the £13 billion that we need on a recurring annual basis across the UK, as stated by the Local Government Association and which I support.”
Love: It’s a sticking plaster over a gaping financial hole
Cllr Love, who is also the ward councillor for East Cowes, went on to add,
“Of course, the funding is welcome, but it’s not the right type of funding that we need.
“I’m sorry to say it will make very little difference. It’s a sticking plaster over a gaping financial hole. This is just another farce and government propaganda.
“I need additional recurring funding, not one-off payments, so I can increase my Adult Social Care staffing baselines and improve pay to attract and maintain the right kind of staffing.
“Yes, this funding helps but it’s does not change anything moving forward.”
Agency staff “maxed out”
Cllr Love told News OnTheWight that the Bluebell House Residential Care Home, which will be used as a step down facility, “is a time limited action and due to close in the not too distant future”.
He also asked where the Government thinks he’ll be able to get agency staff from, “when they are simply maxed out already”?
Love: “They give with one hand and take with the other”
As the council looks to make cuts of £3m in the 2023/24 budget, Cllr Love is being asked to find savings in Adult Social Care, and that, he says, is before the impact of inflation.
“It’s an appalling government propaganda exercise to make it look like the Government are helping, when in fact it makes things more difficult to move forward because the funding is non-recurring.
“We cannot change anything about how we deliver more sustainable beds with this type of funding. It’s nonsensical. The hospital needs to recruit more staff, we need to recruit more staff and government have not given us a penny for that.”
“Our government has failed us in so many ways, the reality is they are providing little or nothing in the 23/24 budget as our council goes into survival mode.
“They give with one hand and take with the other.”
Image: pandora_6666 under CC BY 2.0
