In a surprise outcome to the Warwickshire County Council budget debate at Shire Hall today, Conservative and Labour councillors collaborated to push through a joint budget, which the Liberal Democrats could not support.

The Lib Dem Group had set out its key priorities clearly ahead of the debate, which were to invest in and protect our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, and to invest in speeding up integration of health and social care services. The “compromise” Tory-Labour deal failed to meet any of these priorities. In particular:

• Conservatives and Labour have agreed to implement a savage programme of cuts to children’s centres budgets, taking out a further £1.1 million by April 2018. There is no published plan on how this will be achieved without causing irreparable harm to the vital children and family support services involved, where budgets have already been cut to the bone.
• Both major parties have turned their backs on the opportunity offered by central government to put an extra cash injection of £7.6 million into adult social care services over the next two years, by re-phasing the adult social precept rises over the next three years. Political and short term considerations have blinded them to the real difference this cash injection could have made.

The decision by the Conservative Group to spurn the central government offer is all the more surprising given the prominent national role of their leader, Cllr Seccombe, in lobbying for better funding of adult social care on behalf of the Local Government Association (LGA). While Lib Dems are fully behind the LGA call for proper central government funding, turning down this opportunity for extra funding to make a point to central government is perverse and does not serve the best interests of Warwickshire residents.

After the final vote, Lib Dem Group Leader Jerry Roodhouse said:

“This four-year term of the current Council is ending the way it started, with a Tory/Labour deal done behind closed doors. In 2013, Labour sat on their hands to let the Tories form a minority administration, while they grabbed all the well-paid chairs of committees. Now, in 2017, they’ve pushed through an unacceptable joint budget which they’ll have to justify to Warwickshire voters this May. Vote Blue get Red, and vote Red get Blue, it seems!”

Notes:

1. The Conservative-Labour budget requires cuts in children’s centre budgets totalling £1,120,000 by April 2018. There is no published plan as to how this will be achieved. To achieve this aggressive timetable, public consultation will need to start immediately after the new Council is formed in May, decisions taken and fully implemented before the end of the 2017/18 financial year.

2. The offer by the Government to allow councils to apply 3% adults social care precept rises in for the next two years, but then 0% in 2019/20, would have given WCC an extra cash injection of £7.6 million (£2.5m in 2017/18 and £5.1m in 2018/19) to spend on the transformation of hard pressed adult social care services. The impact on a Band D council tax payer in 2017/18 would have been 24p a week.

Warwickshire County Council meets on Thursday this week to decide its 2017-2020 budget and medium term financial plan, and to set its strategic direction for the next three years.

In a “hung” council with no overall majority, it’s necessary for two or more of the political groups to come together to ensure that a budget can be passed.

The Liberal Democrat Group has clear strategic and financial objectives, which it is looking for the other groups to support. These are focussed on what we consider to be the primary responsibilities of the Council, which are to invest in and protect our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, and to provide dignity and support for older citizens by investing in adult social care and its integration with health services. A better way for Warwickshire.

Two years ago Lib Dems led the way with the introduction of the ‘Smart Start’ programme, focussed on 0-5 year old children and their families, which has delivered a powerful evidence base and innovative solutions for the delivery of better outcomes for children and families across Warwickshire. We now want to see this programme fully integrated into the redesign of future services for children and families. In the medium term this will deliver better services at lower cost, but we cannot accept the speed and depth of budget cuts in this area proposed by both Conservatives and Labour.

In adult social care, we are clear that now is time to “grasp the nettle” in terms of maximising the funding available to sustain and transform our services. We want the Council to take the opportunity offered by central government to raise the council tax precept by an extra 1% in both 2017/18 and 2018/19 compared with the plans put forward by the Conservative administration.

This will provide an extra cash injection of £7.5 million into adult social care services over the next two years. It will ensure that the new model of integrated health and social care in Warwickshire, which the whole Council is being asked to back, can be delivered faster and more securely, taking pressure off severely stretched NHS budgets, and helping people to live independent lives for longer.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, Lib Dem Group Leader, said:

“We’re amazed that the Conservative leader Izzi Seccombe, who has been speaking out nationally for many months for better funding for adult social care, seems prepared to turn down this opportunity offered by her own Government.

“While it’s nowhere near enough to solve the overall funding crisis, an extra £7.5 million of ring-fenced money over the next two years would make a massive difference.”

ENDS

 Notes:

1. Warwickshire’s ‘Smart Start’ programme has been led by Lib Dem county councillor Jerry Roodhouse. http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/smartstart.
2. Nationally and locally, Liberal Democrats are leading the fight to get fair funding for Adult Social Care. At Westminster, Lib Dem former Health Minister Norman Lamb MP is co-ordinating a cross-party group of more than 20 MPs calling on the government to find a long-term solution to the crisis in health and social care funding. http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/nationalhealthserviceandsocialcarecommission.html.
3. Warwickshire’s draft One Organisational Plan 2020 (gl/LIygaj) predicts 100% increases in over-85’s and people with severe/moderate needs between 2010 and 2030. Expenditure on adult social care will need to rise by 37% between 2010 and 2020 to keep pace with pressures.
4. The Conservative leader of the council, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, is the national chair of the Community Wellbeing Board of the Local Government Association. In this role she has consistently spoken out against the Government’s inadequate funding of adult social care.

http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10180/8203028/NEWS

http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10180/8139242/NEWS

http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10180/8096270/NEWS

http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10180/8046814/NEWS

http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10180/8032093/NEWS

5. The Secretary of State for Communities & Local government Sajid Javid MP, announced in December 2016 that local councils would be allowed to increase the dedicated social care precept by up to 3% in 2017/18 and 2018/19, provided that the total increase over 3 years was not more than 6%.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dedicated-adult-social-care-funding-forms-key-part-of-continued-long-term-funding-certainty-for-councils

6. An extra 1% on council tax would mean an extra 24p a week for a Band D property in Warwickshire.

Last week Warwickshire County Council released details of the savage cuts to spending budgets required to achieve savings of £67 million by 2020, in order to meet the Government’s austerity targets. Although described as “options”, there is no doubt that most of them will form the basis of the budget proposals to be released by the ruling Conservative group at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The Liberal Democrat group of county councillors set out some of its key budget priorities three weeks ago, when it made clear in public and to the other groups that it would not vote for any further cuts to children’s centre budgets, nor for cuts to fire engines and fire crews. At the time we challenged both Conservatives and Labour groups to say where they stood, but instead there has been a resounding silence.

With the release of the Cabinet papers, it is now revealed that the “options” include a further £1 million (25%) reduction in children’s centre budgets, and a £400,000 cut in retained fire engines and crews. Liberal Democrats will not support either proposal, which could damage our youngest and most vulnerable residents, and put communities at risk.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Warwickshire County Council said

“We’ve waited in vain for either Conservatives or Labour to tell us where their priorities lie, but on Thursday perhaps all will be revealed. We hope that both groups will be prepared to back our public stand in support of these vital services.”

The Warwickshire County Council Liberal Democrat group of councillors has been consulting and working through the proposed £67 million cuts to services by 2020 as outlined in documents published. We are concerned that not all the information needed is being placed in the public arena for council tax payers to make a judgement on.
Our core principle is that we should be seeking to “Invest for the Future. As part of the budget making process, therefore, we are making the following commitments known now for the other political groups on the council to consider if they also wish to support.

Our Youngest & Most Vulnerable
Investing in children and young people is also investing for the next generation – it goes beyond elections and one budget. That is what the Liberal Democrats said when we introduced the £5.0 million funding for the “Smart Start” programme, that this needs to become the everyday business of not just the County Council but of Health and others. A long term vision that lasts.
For this reason we have decided not to support any of the proposed savings on Children Centres. Sustained investment for our future delivers better outcomes for children and families, but also makes savings for the public purse in the longer term.
There is a need to reduce children from becoming looked after within this sum allocated we are also proposing to main stream the “Smart Start” work. We shall be investing the remaining allocation and adding to it ensuring that we can achieve our goal of a service that is fit for the future.
Our Fire Service
We say that there should be no more cuts to the Fire & Rescue Service – it is at the edge of not being able to provide a safe service. We say no to the proposed cuts to fire engines and staff.
Instead we want to invest £200,000 into community fire safety, focusing on three important initiatives:
• Delivering CPR training to schoolchildren at all 36 state schools across the county at year 8 level, equating to approximately 6500 students, at a cost of approximately £80k per year.
• Road Safety Education: The service attended approximately 600 Road traffic collisions in 2015/16, with approximately 150 people extricated from vehicles. On average there are approximately 30 people killed in Road Traffic Collisions per year. For Fire and Rescue to deliver road safety education through its “Fatal 4” presentation to all state schools in Warwickshire would be approximately £80K per year.
• Arson Reduction: There is an arson reduction officer embedded with the Police and other partners within the Justice Centre in Nuneaton. This has contributed to a 30% reduction in deliberate fires/arson in 5 years, This now needs to have the investment needed (£40k p.a.) to roll into the south of Warwickshire.
We are still near the start of the budget decision process for Warwickshire County Council, which will conclude next February. Because of the very big challenges ahead, Liberal Democrats believe it only right that we start to say as early and as clearly as possible what are our priorities for the years ahead. This is only our first release, and we will be releasing more as the process moves forward.
Cllr Jerry Roodhouse Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Warwickshire County Council said:
“The challenge to other Groups is out there. We place these items at the top of our list going forward – our youngest and vulnerable need support, while our Fire Service is on the edge of not being able to protect our communities.
“To Conservative and Labour we say, this our first step, with more to be released. You can be open now and say that you will support our steps for investing in the future of Warwickshire, or play the politics of wait and see. The choice is yours” .

Today’s meeting of Warwickshire County Council heard a statement from the Conservative Leader outlining plans to cut a further £67 million from the Council’s expenditure over the next three years, threatening up to another 317 jobs. The statement will be followed by consultation with unions, staff and the public, and comes ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in Westminster on 23rd November. Next February the County Council must set its budget for the next three years.
The Liberal Democrat group will now study carefully the new savings plan put forward, and continue to be guided by the key priorities which it has promoted consistently over several years, in particular investing in early years’ education.
Lib Dem group leader Cllr Jerry Roodhouse (Rugby Eastlands & Hillmorton) said:
“The dithering and inconsistent messages coming from the new Conservative government make it almost impossible for local councils to plan realistically for the medium term.
“For example, what will be the outcome of the consultation on business rate retention, which will be a much important part of local government financing in future? When will the government break its deathly silence on how and when revenue support grant funding will disappear? When will it decide how it wants to take forward the whole question of combined authorities as it affects non-metropolitan areas?
“Central government continues to exert a stranglehold on local councils’ funding options, and over the coming weeks and months could announce further decisions which would blow the current Warwickshire savings plans out of the water.”

At today’s meeting of Warwickshire County Council, councillors debated how to spend the £3 million on-off Transition Fund money for 2016/17 allocated to the Council by the Government on the 8^th February.

Liberal Democrat councillors came together with Labour and the Greens to vote for a combined amendment which secured a number of key priorities, investing up front in some services to gain future savings, and giving other areas the breathing space needed so that they can prepare for the future with less funding.

A total of £1 million extra over 2 years will be invested in adult social care, specifically in assistive technology, in carer support especially dementia support, and in falls prevention.

£600,000 will be spent over 2 years in front-line community work focussed on the mental health issues of children and young people.

Another £600,000 over 2 years will be invested in front-line family support workers across the County, building on the additional ongoing funding secured in the main budget settlement on the 4^th February, and in line with the developing 0-5 strategy being led by Jerry Roodhouse, Liberal Democrat Group Leader.

Additional one-off money of £108,000 into the Library Service will provide the breathing space to avoid measures like the Sunday closure of main libraries in Leamington, Nuneaton and Rugby while other sustainable solutions are developed.

The vital work of the Road Safety Education on our schools will be supported by £100,000 to reduce its savings target, allowing a more realistic timescale to develop new ways of funding it.

Finally, £42,000 will be used in Fire & Rescue to maintain the work of the Arson Reduction Scheme, while £35,000 will help boost the work on developing bids for cycling schemes.

The residual £540,000 of the one-off money for 2016/17 will kept back to help manage implementation of further spending reductions required over the following three years.

Cllr Roodhouse said:

“We’re pleased with the outcome today, which strikes the right balance for using this one-off money. The Conservatives wanted to hold back more than we were prepared to accept, but in a Council with no overall majority they were unable to get their own way on this occasion.”

Warwickshire Liberal Democrats’ response to the additional £3.0 million transitional grant money, awarded by the Government for each of the next two years, is that it “helps a bit but is not enough”.

The huge cuts in the County Council’s Revenue Support Grant confirmed in the final Local Government Finance Settlement announced on 8^th February, together with other grant changes announced at the same time, mean that another £60 million will need to be cut from the Council’s costs over the next three years on top of the severe cuts already planned and in train.

When the Council meets on Tuesday 23^rd February to decide how to allocate the £6.0 million transitional grant money, Liberal Democrat councillors will be seeking additional protection and support for their key priorities:

• Supporting carers and allowing older people to live independently in their own homes for longer.
• Front-line community work especially addressing the mental health issues of children and young people.
• Keeping our main libraries open on Sundays.
• Protecting the funding for vital road safety education work in schools.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse said:

“We’re proposing using some of the one-off money to invest now for future savings, and to give some areas a bit more breathing space so that they can prepare for the future with less funding. We’re not proposing using the full £6 million, however, as we know that extra resources will be needed to address future pressures.

“This extra money will help a bit, but is not enough to stop big future cuts even if council tax continues to go up 4% every year. The Conservatives are still giving people ‘More Taxes for Fewer Services’.”