Shaping the Future of Warwickshire

wcc logo

Liberal Democrat members of Warwickshire County Council have expressed disappointment at the announcements by the County’s Conservative Leader on Thursday on the future shape of the Council, and how it should address budget cuts of £92 million over the next four years.

They are critical of the Conservative administration for sitting on the issue for months since the elections in May, rather than recognising the realities of a no overall control council and engaging in the earliest possible dialogue and debate with the other political groups.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse (Rugby Eastlands & Hillmorton), Lib Dem group leader, said:

“We need to engage with communities across Warwickshire, and work together across political divides, if we are to find the way forward to address this massive financial challenge which can command the widest possible understanding and support. Liberal Democrats will be pro-active in making sure this happens.”

The Lib Dems have grave concerns about the outline £92 million savings plan published by the Conservatives, in particular disproportionately large cuts in vital children’s services such as Early Intervention and Learning & Achievement.

In the critical areas of health and adult social services, the Lib Dems will be pushing for accelerated integration of NHS and council resources and budgets, with the new NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups stepping up to the mark and working seamlessly with the County Council to deliver the best possible outcomes for vulnerable and dependent people.

The Lib Dem county group’s budget team will be working hard over the coming months with officers to establish clear priorities for future spending and to minimise adverse impacts on vulnerable groups. Final decisions on the County Council’s budget for the next four years will be taken by all elected members at the Full Council meeting on 6th February 2014.

Warwickshire’s Children’s Centres – The Way Forward

Liberal Democrat members of Warwickshire County Council have published proposals to resolve the deadlock over the future of the County’s 39 children’s centres.

Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey), Lib Dem group spokesperson for Children & Young people, said:
“We supported the call-in of the Cabinet decision on 12th September because we did not believe it to be soundly based, but we’re acutely aware that the clock is ticking. Ahead of the Call-In meeting on the 26th, therefore, we’ve put forward our proposals for the way forward, which hopefully the other political groups will be willing to get behind.”

The Lib Dem seven-point plan is as follows:-
1.     Conduct a further, short (1 month) consultation with all affected groups in the areas where the Option 1 proposals now differ from those consulted on previously – to give everyone the equal opportunity to comment on the revised proposals.
2.     Use the same period of time for further detailed discussions with affected groups in all areas, to define more clearly how the new grouping/collaboration models would work in practice and to address more of the recommendations of the O&S Select Committee.
3.     Address the potential impact of the proposals on WCC’s ability to deliver the Warwickshire Child Poverty Strategy, in particular Priority 2 (Intervening early to break the cycle of poverty) and Priority 3 (Improving financial capability and financial awareness).
4.     Address the issues raised on behalf of WCC’s nursery schools (Early Years Teaching Centres), that the proposals jeopardise their nationally-acclaimed role of providing integrated 2-4 year olds education, the full children’s centre core offer and specialist educational and medical needs under one roof.
5.     Demonstrate that the proposals are more than a short-term fix of a financial problem, but will provide a sustainable future for all of Warwickshire’s children’s centres.
6.     Identify the key risks (including financial risks) arising from the implementation of the proposals, and the actions and contingencies which can minimise these risks.
7.     Bring a revised report back to Cabinet as soon as possible, including the results/outcomes of the six actions identified above.

Note:-
The agenda and papers for the meeting of the Children’s & Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 26th Sep can be found at: http://goo.gl/XtLNBh

 

 

 

Children’s Centres Decision Called In

Following today’s agreement by Warwickshire’s Conservative Cabinet to the recommendations on the future of Children’s Centres, Liberal Democrat and Labour members have combined to “call in” the decision. This means that the Cabinet’s decision cannot be implemented immediately, but will go for further review at a special meeting of the Children’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee to be arranged.

Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey), Liberal Democrats spokesperson for Children & Young People, said:-
“There were many concerns expressed by members during today’s meeting. in particular that the ‘Option 1’ now being recommended for implementation differed significantly from the version that had been in the consultation which ended on 27th August. There were also a number of important questions which received inadequate answers on the day.”

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse (Rugby Eastlands & Hillmorton) said:
“This is a vitally important decision, which the Council needs to ensure it gets right. The referral back to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee will provide another opportunity to ensure it does so.”

Another Cabinet item on changes to the Integrated Disability Service was also called in by members after the meeting, and will be referred back to Overview & Scrutiny also.

Children’s Centres – Nearly Time to Decide

The future of Warwickshire’s Children’s Centres is due to be decided by the county council’s Conservative Cabinet members on Thursday this week. In front of them will be two reports, one from the Children & Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee following its select committee hearings last month, and one from officers recommending that ‘option 1’ is proceed with. Links to the two Cabinet reports can be found here:

http://goo.gl/2FShZE

http://goo.gl/DlMdmj

Liberal Democrat county spokesperson for Children & Young People, Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey) said:

“We shall listen very carefully to what is said at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, and how its Conservative members react and respond to the two reports. The O&S report contains nine strong recommendations, not all of which have been accepted by the officers concerned. Which will the Cabinet back? Also we have strong reservations about the way forward as recommended by the officers’ report, as it fails to demonstrate a long-term sustainable future for our Children’s Centres within an overall strategic context of fair opportunities for all children.”

 

 

 

Children’s Centres – Tories “playing politics” say Lib Dems

Liberal Democrats have expressed their disgust at a press release about the future of Children’s Centres issued today on behalf of Warwickshire Conservatives. The Tory document attacked Liberal Democrat and Labour members of the County Council’s Children & Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee for not voting in support of Option 1 in the consultation document, and thus “letting down” Warwickshire parents.

Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey), Liberal Democrats spokesperson for Children & Young People, said:-

“The Tories are playing politics with the futures of Warwickshire’s children, which is reprehensible behaviour. Councillor Heather Timms, as the cabinet member responsible, should be concentrating her energies on finding a sustainable future for our Children’s Centres, not indulging in such antics.”

Liberal Democrat councillors Clive Rickhards (Studley) and Jerry Roodhouse (Rugby Eastlands & Hillmorton) were at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting. Cllr Rickhards said:

“All members of the committee made clear they objected to the closure of any Children’s Centre, but opposition members were not prepared to support Option 1 outright given there remained a lot of unanswered questions about the impact of the proposed funding cuts, redundancy implications, governance arrangements and service delivery outcomes.”

Cllr Roodhouse said:

“It’s not the job of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to do the Cabinet’s work for them. It is the Conservative administration which has proposed these massive funding cuts to Children’s Centre budgets for next financial year, and has set a very tight timetable for consultation and decision making.”

Liberal Democrats believe that our Children’s Centres are priceless assets, but do not believe that any of the current options on the table have been developed sufficiently to guarantee a sustainable future for the 39 current centres.

It’s up to the Conservative Cabinet on the 12th September to decide how it will respond to the consultation, and to set out their plans for the future of Warwickshire’s Children’s Centres. Once these have been published, Liberal Democrats will decide how to respond, and will act accordingly.

 

Note:

The minutes of the two special meetings of the Children’s & Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee, held on 14th August & 23rd August 2013, can be found at:-

http://goo.gl/6GNFQL

http://goo.gl/iUFBdp

 

Street Lighting – We Need The Evidence

street lights at night

Liberal Democrat county councillors will vote against a Labour group motion on Street Lighting at tomorrow’s meeting of Warwickshire County Council. The Labour motion seeks to reverse the previous Council decision on part-night street lighting, “in the interests of the personal safety of all Warwickshire residents”.

Cllr John Whitehouse (Kenilworth Abbey), Communities lead scrutiny member for the Liberal Democrat group, said:

“We’ve been totally consistent on this policy of part-night street lighting right from the beginning – we support it in principle, as an important contribution to achieving financial savings, and to help reduce energy consumption. However, we’ve called for an early evidence-based review by the County Council of how it has worked out in practice, and what problems if any it has caused. The review should take evidence from the Police and other emergency services. If the personal safety of Warwickshire residents has been adversely affected, then clearly that would be an issue – but currently there is no evidence to confirm this.

“We wanted the review to start in May, but in a Council vote in February both Conservatives and Labour voted to oppose this. At tomorrow’s Council meeting we shall be pressing the Portfolio Holder to commit to carrying out the review, and bringing a report back to the Council at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Labour’s motion tomorrow is a purely political gesture. They have presented no evidence to support it, nor have they said what cuts they would make elsewhere in the Council’s budget to recoup the £500,000 annual savings that switching off the lights is giving.”

NO OVERALL CONTROL = NO OVERALL DIRECTION FOR WARWICKSHIRE

Liberal Democrat county councillors have slammed a deal done behind closed doors between the Conservative and Labour groups on Warwickshire County Council, which has resulted in the Conservatives taking minority control of the Council while Labour has grabbed all the key committee chair roles.

The elections on 2nd May had left the Council in No Overall Control, with Conservatives the largest political group but well short of an overall majority.

Recognising that no one political group had a democratic mandate from Warwickshire’s voters, the Liberal Democrats had proposed a “rainbow coalition” administration drawn from the three main political groups, working to a jointly agreed programme to address the huge challenges facing the County Council over the next four years.

However, the Liberal Democrat proposal was voted down by an alliance of Conservative and Labour members. Instead, Labour chose to abstain on the Conservative proposal, allowing the formation of a minority administration with a Conservative-only Cabinet. History is repeating itself – Labour did exactly the same in 2009 to let the Conservatives push through their budget in the face of Liberal Democrat opposition!

What has Labour gained from this unholy alliance? They’ve been allowed to take all the chairs’ roles on all the key committees, an even more undemocratic outcome than the last time a similar situation arose in 2005, when at least the chairs’ roles were shared proportionately between the main opposition groups.

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said:

“This Tory/Labour deal is bad for Warwickshire, and does not reflect the democratic will of voters. The County is left with a weak, minority administration, at a time when it faces huge challenges and needs to take important decisions to shape a long-term sustainable future.

“The Conservatives will have to negotiate issue-by-issue with the other parties in order to get anything done. Between them, the Tories and Labour have ensured that No Overall Control has become No Overall Direction for Warwickshire.”