At today’s Devon County Council Cabinet meeting, significant underspends on several areas of social care were reported due to staff shortages and staff vacancies. While I together with Labour and LibDem councillors suggested – as officers had told us previously – that this raised serious concerns about whether the Council was able to deliver the services needed, and whether it was getting staff and pay levels right, Conservative Cabinet member, Councillor Andrew Leadbetter said it was testimony to ‘good management’.
2 thoughts on “Devon County Council underspends on social care because it can’t get enough staff – Cabinet member claims it’s ‘good management’!”
Paul F said:
March 14, 2018 at 4:23 pm
Typical Conservative blindness to the impacts of things they do or don’t do.
When they say they “cannot get enough staff”, what is implied is that they cannot get enough staff to provide all the social care that they are required to provide. Which means that some significant number of people in need of social care don’t get it – so they don’t get a hot meal or a bath or get put to bed (and end up sleeping in a chair).
The real consequences are not money saved – they are people living in misery and hardship – and possibly even dying through lack of care.
If that is “good management” as Councillor Leadbetter believes, then it is time he went to a home to receive social care himself and allow someone who is younger and more in touch with the realities of life to take his place. And perhaps Cllr Leadbetter could also speak with his GP about getting an empathy implant whilst he is at it.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 
March 14, 2018 at 4:23 pm
Typical Conservative blindness to the impacts of things they do or don’t do.
When they say they “cannot get enough staff”, what is implied is that they cannot get enough staff to provide all the social care that they are required to provide. Which means that some significant number of people in need of social care don’t get it – so they don’t get a hot meal or a bath or get put to bed (and end up sleeping in a chair).
The real consequences are not money saved – they are people living in misery and hardship – and possibly even dying through lack of care.
If that is “good management” as Councillor Leadbetter believes, then it is time he went to a home to receive social care himself and allow someone who is younger and more in touch with the realities of life to take his place. And perhaps Cllr Leadbetter could also speak with his GP about getting an empathy implant whilst he is at it.
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March 14, 2018 at 5:00 pm
See also https://seatonmatters.org/2018/03/14/demand-for-democratic-control-in-new-integrated-care-system-for-nhs-and-social-care-dominates-devon-county-council-cabinet-discussion
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