“We are not taking this decision, the government is taking it.”
This month is crucial for support staff and clients at Westminster House, with further consultation on whether or not they will face closure. A paper will be brought to Cabinet on 30th March.
Regardless of whether the facility remains open, big changes are implied. Isle of Wight Council (IWC) still aims to save £1,473,000 by ‘redesigning’ social services.
What could change in their revisions are only the ‘possible services for transformation’.
The Council’s thesaurus must be well thumbed. They weren’t really planning to redesign Westminster House, were they? It’s not as if they got a team of architects in. So does ‘transform’ continue to mean ‘close’? There’s plenty more where that came from.
Changes not cuts
“This isn’t a cut, it’s a change of funding system,” said Councillor Ian Ward at the budget meeting last Wednesday.
“We have a new policy: Putting People First. Adult social care. We are not taking this decision, the government is taking it People seem to be unaware of this. Some of the people in social services [“¦] are not aware of this.”
So it’s all about ‘putting people first’, which sounds lovely. What has the government told them to do, then?
(If you’re interested, the ‘Putting People First’ leaflet can be viewed online)
Personalisation provides choice?
Apparently Central Government wants vulnerable people to become ‘consumers’, picking and choosing the services they need.
“They can make their own plans for services with the money from the council. They can also get together with friends to make the plans together, or they can ask an agent or the council to arrange things for them.” The leaflet reads.
This is because “people want better quality services that are personal to them and more control over decisions that affect them.”
But would the closing of centres really give clients greater control?
Once it’s gone, it’s gone
Councillor Reg Barry expressed a fear that if central services disappear ‘we may never get them back’, and will be left with a culture of handouts:
“You can’t give vulnerable people money and say ‘spend it how you like,'” he said. “[Some of them] will just go and spend it in Weatherspoons. [“¦] I think we are going down the wrong road and in two or three years time we will not be able to reverse it.”
Image: spin spin under CC BY-ND 2.0
