Tories and Labour put Social Care Funding debate on Back Burner

1.01.34pm GMT Wed 12th Sep 2007

Cllr Janet Godden tried at the Council meeting yesterday to discuss the very important issue of funding for social care, only to have her motion deferred because the other Groups refused to continue the meeting after 5.30 despite the fact that a previous item had been allowed to overrun by a whole hour.

Janet said, "My motion was urgent. It asked the Leader of the Council to request a meeting with the new Secretary of State for Health to put the case for more funding for adult social care before the Government finishes its discussions on the Comprehensive Spending Review. By the next Council meeting in November it will be too late. There's no point in doing this after the review has been completed. It wouldn't have been a long debate and there should have been plenty of time.

"As I would have said, had I been allowed to do so, the case for this is four-fold. We have put the matter to local MPs, and they have asked parliamentary questions but without notable success. Secondly, there is now a new team in the Department of Health, with new ears that are thought to be better attuned to what the public is thinking and saying. Thirdly, Oxfordshire is now an Excellent Authority and can claim to be already providing value for money and so can insist on being listened to. And fourthly, adult social care is a huge spending area that has received derisory increases in investment under the Labour Government compared with the two other high spending areas Education and Health."

Cllr Chris Wise, who was to second the motion, added, "We know the misery caused to many people through waiting lists for care packages or nursing home placements due to lack of funding. We should not be leaving any stone unturned. Janet and I are gravely dismayed that our motion was not debated, and that this Liberal Democrat initiative was thrown out of the window."