Council hits back after union criticism

TOWN Hall chiefs at Warrington have hit back following criticism from union bosses of its controversial plan to outsource adult social care to a not-for-profit social enterprise company.
They say claims by UNISON, reported by Warrington-Worldwide yesterday, that the union had been totally ignored by the council during consultation on the proposals were unfair and inaccurate.
Cllr Pat Wright, the council’s lead member for health, wellbeing and adult services and Cllr Hitesh Patel, lead member for personnel and communications, both claimed the union had got it wrong.
Cllr Wright said: “The council is facing unprecedented cuts to our funding by the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition government. We have already had £65 million slashed from our budgets and over the next four years we now face another £50 million wiped off our budget. It is against this backdrop that we have to make difficult decisions.
“This proposal seeks to set up a non-profit making Community Interest Company, like the successful Live Wire and Culture Warrington companies, to deliver our adult social care services from February 2015.
“It will be run by council staff not business speculators, and any surplus income will be re-invested back into services.”
Cllr Patel said jobs would be safe-guarded and staff protected. All new staff would be guaranteed the Living Wage.
“But most of all we will be able to safeguard social care services for the most vulnerable people in our community, the elderly and the disabled.
“Over the last 18 months we have had numerous meetings with staff, the unions, and crucially with the service users themselves. What is clear is that doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing puts those who most rely on social care services at huge un-necessary risk.
“I know there are some ideological objections to what we are proposing. We heard the same arguments when we created Live Wire. But let’s not forget, since LiveWire came into operation we have seen lots of new jobs and apprenticeships being created and significantly better services being delivered. We are confident that the staff going over to run this new community interest company will have similar success.”
The council’s current in-house team employs 317 staff supporting more than 600 users and runs eight services, including residential care for older people, learning disability respite accommodation, older people extra care and specialist day services.
Consultation with service users has shown that they were more interested in the quality of service rather than by who provided it.
Officers claim the change to a social enterprise company will enable savings of £651,000 to be made this year and £100,000 next year, with potential for further savings thereafter
Pictured: Councillors Pat Wright and Hitesh Patel.