‘Local policing’ review highlights funding crisis driving loss of PCSOs – neighbourhood services may rely on Specials and volunteers
Last week I took part in, as a member of a Devon County Council scrutiny committee, a ‘spotlight review’ on ‘local policing’ attended by senior officers including the Chief Constable. Local policing, it was explained, is different from neighbourhood policing as it is delivered by officers behind computers in headquarters and other specialists, some of whom will not be uniformed, as well as on the beat in a neighbourhood. The planned drastic reductions in the numbers of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) are part of this transition, and the police made it clear that while they are not happy with this, they see it as the inevitable consequence of reduced funding. If there is any hope of keeping up the level of neighbourhood policing it may lie, it was suggested, in recruiting an increased number of Specials with a neighbourhood brief, and other volunteers.
I am a member of the scrutiny committee’s panel which will produce recommendations from this review. Without prejudging our discussion, it is safe to say that there was general agreement that there is a huge gap between how the police see their role and how local communities see it. I will let you know if we find ways of bridging it!
Vote for solar panels for Colyton Library
Please vote for Colyton Library in the Marks and Spencer Community Energy Fund by clicking HERE
We need your vote. Colyton Library has the opportunity to win £4,500 funding for solar panels. As you may know the library building now belongs to Colyton Parish Council. The running costs and maintenance costs will be split between The Friends of Colyton Library and Libraries Unlimited. Solar panels will provide free electricity and a small income.
PLEASE VOTE !!!!!!!!!!
If you have any problems go to http://www.mandsenergyfund.com and select the region Devon and Dorset
Green MP asks for crucial safeguards with new NHS Accountable Care Organisation contracts
Caroline Lucas Green, Brighton, Pavilion
‘To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether safeguards are in place to ensure that the new model Accountable Care Organisation contract, published by NHS England in August 2017, will not result in fewer NHS services being provided than under the traditional NHS standard contract; and if he will make a statement.’
NHS Chair: “We are more scared than we have ever been. We have the strong likelihood of hospitals being inundated with people suffering flu.”
The chairman of NHS England, Prof Sir Malcolm Grant, speaking at the national children and adult services conference in Bournemouth yesterday, said: “We face winter better prepared than we have ever been, but more scared than we have ever been. We have the strong likelihood of hospitals being inundated with people suffering flu.”
Still the right moment to have closed our community hospital beds?
Meeting plans to secure remedial measures for Wilmington, to tame the A35’s damaging effects on the village
Last Thursday I arrived late for a meeting with the A35 Action Group in Wilmington. There had been yet another crash on the eastern side of the village (after a spate of crashes on the road in the summer: image from Devon Live).
There are problems all along this road but Wilmington’s situation is particularly bad. There is not a single pedestrian crossing and many parts of the village don’t even have pavements, although huge volumes of traffic, including large numbers of heavy goods vehicles, pass through – often at excessive speed – at all times. The situation is a scandal and I will join Neil Parish MP and representatives of Widworthy Parish Council and the Action Group to meet Highways England later this month to request urgent implementation of a series of remedial measures.
Seaton Hospital page updated to show how the community raised £4 million for it over the last 3 decades
Go to https://seatonmatters.org/seaton-hospital/
A poll of healthcare leaders found that 92 per cent are concerned about their ability to cope as the colder months arrive – but Devon Conservatives know better!
They brushed aside concerns about beds in last week’s Council meeting. The Times also reports that it is too late for a cash injection to save the NHS from a winter crisis, according to a senior health official.
The new model of care is working, they say, but patients who could have been treated in Seaton Hospital are still bed-blocking in the RD&E
Below is the RD&E’s latest publicity leaflet for the ‘new model of care’ boasting ‘no complaints’ from people who were treated between 28 August and 10 September. On the reverse side it features Doug – is it a coincidence that he is from Seaton? – who has had a knee amputation and is being cared for at home after two weeks on an acute ward. He says, ‘I cannot praise enough the wonderful care and treatment I have received right through from the surgical team to the community healthcare professionals. The skills and attention to detail they have shown is remarkable. It’s been a pleasure having them in my home.’
I am sure that the dedicated professionals working in the new system are doing their best for the patients. But are all the people who would have been transferred to the community hospitals actually getting the treatment at home which they are promised by ‘Your Future Care’? At the same time I received this comment from a Seaton resident: ‘A friend of mine’s husband has been in the RD&E for about 10 days. He could have come home 4 days ago, but there was no home care arranged for him – no one available to do the job, so his wife is paying privately to get help, and he will now be coming home some time on Sunday. He will have been bed blocking for 1 WEEK. It says it all doesn’t it?’
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 