Volunteers to lead on county carers' needs

8:30am Tuesday 12th February 2013 in News

Simon Weston (left) with Councillor Nick Nenadich Simon Weston (left) with Councillor Nick Nenadich

HEREFORDSHIRE Council is close to letting volunteer and charity groups “take a lead” to help tackle its toughest challenge.

The latest projected overspend on the ever-rising commissioning budget for adult social care already comes close to £8 million by the end of the financial year.

A carers conference heard Councillor Nick Nenadich, health and wellbeing cabinet support member, say the council was now close to telling the voluntary and third sectors: “you take a lead on it”.

The conference was told that the county’s newly formed health and wellbeing board was working on a carers strategy with the number of carers in “one capacity or another” now estimated at 30,000 – a sizeable number of whom are young or even classed as minors.

But Coun Nenadich warned that for all the goodwill, the success of any such strategy still came down to “cold cash” with available funding tight and about to get tighter.

Organised by the Association for Care Training, the conference at Hereford United’s Starlight Rooms, was a National Dignity Day event with Falklands hero Simon Weston as guest speaker.

Other speakers addressed the need for employers to recognise the number of carers in the county in adapting workplace policies and outline initiatives promoting dignity and supporting carer needs.

Comments(9)

courtesycall says...
8:50am Tue 12 Feb 13

It has long been a practise amongst many councils of expecting charities and voluntary organisations to take on more of their fair share of local authority care problems, but without giving the charities and vos any more money to do so. Charities and vos normally do a grand job under trying circumstances but they will need a lot more support if they're expected to take over completely.

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probono says...
9:17am Tue 12 Feb 13

Charity begins at home. When charities start paying salaries to directors and managers, and employing the accursed consultants, then the rot sets in and ordinary folk who just wanted to lend a hand get pushed out. Look at some of the national charities like Oxfam and the RSPCA who have huge overheads and gin palaces of head offices and you can see where your donations go. Lets go back to small and local being good and reduce the bureaucracy a bit. Oh, I forgot bureaucracy is what keeps the wheels of local government running and helps to keep members expenses up.

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WYSIATI says...
3:18pm Tue 12 Feb 13

A difficult one - we rely a lot on voluntary time and effort to care for lots of people but there's also a large and growing business of providing services for money via charities and "volunteers".

I read about volunteers being organised via a paid third party organisation to provide services that used to be provided by the council (not here) - as a result of the Govt push on the big society. End result you devalue and diminish the volunteers - who would volunteer knowing someone else is getting paid? - mix up the motivation of the players - charities behaving like business and becoming more dependent on contracts and messing about with public service and accountability.

Of course, this uncontrolled experiment is well underway and no one knows where it will go.

I don't think it's about keeping up expenses - in fact it's the opposite - it's about shrinking the role of the elected and accountable council and replacing it with contracts to companies who in turn either "employ" people at minimum possible cost or get volunteers to do the work!

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GDJ says...
4:26pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Here's an idea for the powers that be in HCC.

Set up a charity to help run the libraries.

Reduce my council tax by £100 and I will pay a gift aided £90 donation to the library charity. With the tax rebate the library would receive £112 (I think).

Both I and the council service gain by about £10.

Am I missing something or would this work? (The only losers would be the layers in HCC which the money currently passes through and who each take a bit).

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courtesycall says...
4:50pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Why not close the libraries anyway? In the past, libraries were privately owned and plenty of libraries still are (and make a profit too, that's ploughed back into the library)It doesn't need council to run let alone staff a library.

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WYSIATI says...
8:09am Wed 13 Feb 13

GDJ - I don't think there's anything to stop a charity being set up to run libraries - in fact I suspect that a credible offer would be given very favourable treatment - there is a push to move public assets owned by everyone out to charities and other groups.

And the money wheeze sounds good - of course the actual losers would be all the state provided services affected by the 22% reduction in tax, the administration of the system and those who have to pay more or lose a job because of the change.

courtesycall - I've not come across these private libraries that make profits - are there some locally? I'd like to understand how the model works.

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Themightyboosh says...
8:59pm Wed 13 Feb 13

and as our glorious council pushes
us towards more home care.

http://www.bbc.co.uk
/news/health-2143095
6

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bobby47 says...
5:01pm Thu 14 Feb 13

This Councillor, Mr Nenadich, is one of a small number within the ruling elite Ive got time for.
Hes a decent man who's heart is in the right place. Unfortunately for him, he's associated with many who simply want wealth and glory for themselves.
If I had the good fortune to meet and talk to this good man I'd say to him, 'Stand up to our ruling elite and tell them what you really and honestly think'.
For any chap who's cares as much for the vulnerable in our society as I know he does, he's got it in him to help bring this chaotic and deluded Council Leadership down.

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courtesycall says...
6:15pm Thu 14 Feb 13

Link about private libraries

www.independentlibra
ries.co.uk

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