Minutes:
Report: See pages 67-68 of the main agenda
The guillotine having fallen, Councillors Dora Dixon Fyle and John Friary, formally moved and seconded the motion.
Councillors David Noakes and Nick Stanton formally moved and seconded Amendment F.
Amendment F was put to the vote and declared to be carried.
The substantive motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.
RESOLVED:
1. That council assembly is grateful for the hard work and dedication of both the council’s own social care staff and those of partner organisations providing care in the borough.
2. That council assembly regrets the publication of the recent draft report from the Care Quality Commission (CGC) without any input from the council because of the commission’s refusal to discuss their findings with the council and notes the significant flaws, inaccuracies and factual errors including:
a) criticism of the the council’s customer service centre based on a small sample survey which ignored evidence from the council’s own customer service surveys showing increasing satisfaction. Council assembly also notes the inspector failed to visit the dedicated and specialist call centre dealing with the most vulnerable residents.
b) contradictory assumptions about the council’s spending on adult social care including the claim that “the proportion of council spend directed to adult social care was in the lowest quartile nationally”, when the Audit Commission confirms that the council spends in the highest quartile nationally and the social care component of the council’s formula grant as calculated by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is in fact £22 million less than actual spending.
c) failure to recognise the council’s beacon status for promoting cohesion, equality and driving out discrimination.
3. That council assembly welcomes the statement by Labour Minister of State for Care Services, Phil Hope, who in his letter to the council on 2 December acknowledges that the council is not a poor performer.
4. That council assembly believes that if the CQC report was a true reflection of a deterioration in service that this would have been picked up through complaints, MPs casework and council questions and motions. Council assembly notes that Harriet Harman states in her most recent annual report that social care issues were just 1.5% of the total, for Simon Hughes these were just 2% of the total caseload and that opposition members asked not a single question on the quality of social care in the last two years.
5. That council assembly supports the call for the findings to be subject to independent scrutiny to establish the facts, to allow the council to agree where improvement is actually needed and take action to improve services.
Note: This motion will be referred as a recommendation to the executive for consideration.