The excellent False Economy website shows that in 2013, as part of its Efficiency Review of Services, Calderdale Council has cut the following Health and Social Care services. Mainly the cuts are scores of staff redundancies, as the Council is outsourcing the services to private providers.
So how does that work out? If private providers are cheaper than NHS/Council facilities, you can bet that means they’re paying staff lower wages. I will try and find out.
Home Support for people with Dementia
Current cost – £000’s: 200 (gross cost)
Estimated savings to be achieved by cutting or outsourcing that service – £000’s: 500
Support for Adults with mental health needs
Current cost – £000’s: 2,175 (gross cost)
Estimated savings to be achieved by cutting or outsourcing that service – £000’s: 500
Estimated staff reductions as a result of cutting or outsourcing that service: n/k
Day services for Older People & Adults with a learning disability
Current cost – £000’s: 2,125 (gross cost)
Estimated savings to be achieved by cutting or outsourcing that service – £000’s: 500
Business Support for Health and Social care
Current cost – £000’s: 403 (gross cost)
Estimated savings to be achieved by cutting or outsourcing that service – £000’s: 500
New ways of delivering in-house extra care homecare service
The name of service to be cut, outsourced or reviewed: Homecare in Extra care schemes
Current cost – £000’s: 613 (gross cost)
Estimated savings to be achieved by cutting or outsourcing that service – £000’s: 100
Estimated staff reductions as a result of cutting or outsourcing that service: 29fte (TUPE Transfer)
Again this is about outsourcing/privatisation. And Council staff job losses.
Decommission Intermediate Care facility – Healthy House
The name of service to be cut, outsourced or reviewed: Intermediate Care
Current cost £ 000’s: 780 (gross cost)
Estimated savings to be achieved by cutting or outsourcing that service – £000’s: 300/year
Estimated staff reductions as a result of cutting or outsourcing that service: 31fte
This is about closing an intermediate care home that is jointly owned by Calderdale Council and the Primary Care Trust (except I think that’s turned into Caldedale Clinical Commissioning Group now, hasn’t it?), so
“it will be necessary to commission alternative beds from independent sector providers”
Privatisation. The savings of £300K/year come from firing 30fte Calderdale Council staff.
Details of these “efficiency savings” are here in Calderdale Council’s pdf file.
The False Economy website posted all this info on 9th May 2013.
Why haven’t Labour Councillors joined Councillors Against Cuts?
I was sitting out in the back yard the other day talking to a neighbour’s friend about Calderdale Council cuts. He was defending the Council, saying that they didn’t have an option because central government had imposed the cuts through its Comprehensive Spending Review. To which my answer was, why haven’t Calderdale Labour Councillors signed up to Councillors Against Cuts?
Only one Councillor in the area, Mark Catterall (Labour councillor, Langfield Ward, Todmorden Town Council) is included on the list of initial signatories
Update: this mystery has been solved by a Hebden Royd Labour Councillor who has told me that the reason why no Labour Calderdale Councillors have signed up to Councillors Against Cuts is that the Labour Party would throw them out if they did. Which surprised me. I would’ve thought the Labour Party was opposed to the Coalition Government cuts. But not so.
There is a good blog post on the Councillors Against Cuts website, that argues convincingly that the role of Councillors
“is not to administer austerity but to join with their local communities in fighting back.”
Why cuts are a false economy
Councillors Against Cuts say,
“We do not accept that cuts are “necessary”: there is plenty of money in society, but it is in the wrong hands. Taxing the rich and business, taking the wealth of the banks and cutting Trident are all rich sources of funds.”
For info on why cuts are a false economy, see the False Economy factsheet.