Norfolk care services rallying cry

By Richard Wheeler Monday, February 13, 2012
10:04 AM

Care campaigners have been urged to keep “fighting, complaining and yelling” to stop services for thousands of vulnerable people being decimated by government cutbacks.

The proposal will see charges of £15 to £36 implemented per session at day centres, transport arrangements changing and staff numbers decreasing.

And opponents yesterday accused the ruling Conservatives of preparing to “put their hands up like sheep” to back the spending plans, despite hundreds of people across Norfolk voicing fears about the changes.

This claim was denied by a senior Tory, who insisted the group is backing a well-researched budget.

A protest outside County Hall, in Norwich, is planned ahead of Monday’s vote.

James Joyce, Liberal Democrat group leader, said people needed to keep making their voices heard as this had so far prevented more drastic cuts being made.

He said: “Whatever we say, there are only 20 people who are not of the ruling group so 75pc of councillors will be voting one way. Keep fighting, keep complaining, keep yelling as you have done for the last two years because if you hadn’t the services would have gone ages ago. Keep fighting and make people understand what prevention is about.”

Unison and the Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People (NCODP) met fellow opponents to the council’s budget at the Forum, Norwich, yesterday.

Mark Harrison, NCODP chief executive, said the cuts were an “all-out assault” on disabled people’s living standards by the coalition government.

The group has also written an open letter asking Norfolk’s MPs to reject the government’s proposals for reform of welfare, health and social care.

Supporters of the Silver Rooms day centre, in Silver Road, north Norwich, have spent more than two years campaigning to keep the building open as a new community centre to be used by all ages.

Hilda Bullen, 83, uses the service and told yesterday’s meeting: “It’s so important we have contact with other people our age. Perhaps we don’t see anyone over the weekend. I see nobody at all. We go to the Silver Rooms to have this community support. This is my life.”

Around 4,500 people use day care services in Norfolk, with 1,700 people visiting facilities run by the council.

David Harwood, the county council’s cabinet member for adult social care, said the authority had developed plans which protected the most vulnerable people and provided more money for prevention services, which aim to spot the early signs of illness.

Mr Harwood added £27m will be put into the care budget in the next three years. He said: “If we’ve not got the money to do it, we can’t do it. We asked a lot of extremely difficult questions before this process started and one was if people can afford to pay, should they pay? The vast majority of people who responded said yes they should.”

richard.wheeler@archant.co.uk

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/norfolk_care_services_rallying_cry_1_1207494