Letter: Care service must be more careful

Correspondent • Published 1 Nov 2009 10:00 0 Comments

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AS I revealed a couple of weeks ago, following a Freedom of Information request to Tory-controlled West Berkshire Council, they don't even keep a record there of the number of elderly residents, and those with physical disabilities, learning disabilities or mental health problems, that refuse to help, saying not just that it's too expensive to do so but that they just don't keep that information on file.

We put the question to them because they only offer care to people with "critical" need and are classed as one of the meanest councils in the country.

And then I read (Chronicle, October 22) that the West Berkshire Tories are responding to budget pressures by being meaner still!

"For example," says Tory Cabinet member Joe Mooney, in future "someone looking for a place in a care home would need to have greater need than before". So having previously only met critical need, West Berkshire Tories are now only going to meet critical-plus! I wonder what their friend Mr Sharma, who is quoted in the same paper as saying the Tories "will reward those who take responsibility and care for those who can't" thinks of that.

I can tell you what I think. I think that Labour is absolutely right to be proposing a National Care Service in which people get the care and support they need wherever they are in the country, a simple system in which people know exactly what to expect from the system and what they need to do to get help, a system where care is built round people's individual needs, and one which is sustainable and affordable for everyone.

Not a system where Tories like Joe Mooney can whip care away from people in critical need to keep under the bottom line. The choice before voters next year could really not be more stark.

Naz Sarkar, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West

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