Uninterrupted care must be priority when new North Staffordshire council is created
The unbroken provision of care for vulnerable adults and child must be a priority for the new North Staffordshire council, says a senior Newcastle borough councillor.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council will be abolished and replaced by a single unitary authority in less than two years’ time.
A shadow authority will be created next spring when the three councils plan how to merge services, as well as take on some responsibilities from Staffordshire County Council, which is also being abolished.
Currently, care for vulnerable children and adult social care is provided in the Potteries by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, and by Staffordshire County Council in the Newcastle and Staffordshire Moorlands areas.
As part of the forward planning, Cllr Vanessa Renshaw, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Cabinet member for Housing and Public Protection, has written to Stoke-on-Trent City Council with a series of questions about provision and planning.
Cllr Renshaw writes:
We all recognise that these are not ordinary administrative services that can simply be moved from one organisation chart to another.
They support vulnerable children, older people, adults with disabilities, families in crisis and people who depend upon care services to live safely and with dignity.
Any disruption, confusion or decline in performance could have devastating consequences for the people concerned.”
The letter asks for details of:
- service improvements plans,
- proposals for developing performance benchmarks before the services ‘go live’,
- continuity arrangements so that care packages continue uninterrupted,
- the effectiveness of current initiatives to improve early intervention,
- plans for an independent assessment of the new authority’s ability to deliver, given Stoke-on-Trent’s debts.
Cllr Renshaw adds:
Lives, safety and personal dignity depend upon these services working properly every single day.
By working together now, sharing evidence openly and addressing risks at an early stage, we can help ensure that no child faces greater risk, no vulnerable adult loses essential support and no family is left navigating uncertainty because the authorities responsible have not prepared sufficiently.”
This letter follows one from Deputy Leader Graham Shaw, Cabinet member for Finance, who has asked Stoke-on-Trent City Council to say what Government help it is seeking to clear more than £783 million of debt before the city council joins the new North Staffordshire unitary authority.
A second letter from Cllr Ben Simpson, Cabinet member for Waste, Recycling and Green Spaces, asked after Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s plans to improve waste services to meet the Government’s minimum requirements.