The motion was moved by Councillor Gilli Lewis-Lavender and seconded by Councillor Hamish Badenoch.

The Liberal Democrats amendment, as set out in item 17 was moved by Councillor Mary-Jane Jeanes.

The amendment was not seconded, and the amendment as a result falls.

The Labour amendment, as set out in item 19 was moved by Councillor Mark Allison and seconded by Councillor Ross Garrod.

The Labour amendment was then put to the vote and was carried – votes in favour 34, and votes against 24 with 1 abstention.

Councillors Peter Southgate and Suzanne Grocott also spoke on this item.

The substantive resolution was then agreed.

RESOLVED:

This Council notes that:

·         National government has reduced funding to local councils by 40% since 2010;

·         The Chancellor George Osborne announced further cuts in the autumn statement before Christmas, with the government’s cuts to local government funding now totalling 60%. The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), which is a government department, confirms that this would cut public services to their lowest level since the 1930’s;

·         The council needs to find a further £32m of savings a year by 2019;

·         The council’s ‘July principles’, agreed by the Labour, Merton Park Independent Residents and Liberal Democrat Groups in July 2011, included a commitment to continue to provide everything that is mandatory and to maintain services, within limits, to the vulnerable and elderly, which unfortunately the Conservative group did not support;

·         As a result, the Cabinet has agreed that adult social care and children’s services should take proportionately less of a share of the cuts than other services.  However, the scale of the government’s cuts means all services must find savings, and with adult social care the largest area of the council’s controllable spendit is inevitable that there will need to be cuts to these services.  The Cabinet has focused on using the remaining money we have on those who are in the most need and on ensuring the services that people are legally entitled to continue to be delivered in a safe way;

·         The cuts from central government have put huge pressure on council budgets and in adult social care it is very difficult to deliver savings without putting residents at risk. Among the replacement Adult Social Care savings that the Cabinet has been forced to bring forward this year because £400,000 of savings previously agreed for 2015-16 can no longer be safely delivered, are proposals to reduce by £200,000 the funding of day care services provided at the High Path and All Saints day centres for disabled adults and their carers, instead of closing day centres like the Conservatives Group tried to do when they proposed closing All Saints Day Centre in 2007/08. The proposal seeks keep all our day centres open, rather than closing day centres as some councils plan to do, by saving money and changing the way in which we deliver our services with reduced budgets, whilst ensuring our ability to deliver our statutory responsibilities.

·         Consultation has just closed on the Council’s proposals to address the cuts in our funding from central government by cutting spending on Adult Social Care by a further £5.4 million between 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 due to the severity of these government cuts which come despite an estimated 9% increase in the older population of Merton between 2015 and 2020 and a projected increase of around 5% in the number of residents with learning disabilities over that period; and

·         Additionally, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government have decided to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF) and to remove the ringfence when the funding is devolved to councils, which will mean Cabinet will need to consider further difficult decisions in order to ensure help continues to be provided for those who are in the greatest assessed need; 

·         At the same time, the current administration is undertaking a modest pilot, mostly paid for by a small government grant, to test whether or not wheeled bins would help keep Merton cleaner while at the same time saving money for council tax payers,  following on from a detailed and in depth review by a cross-party Scrutiny task group in 2011 which concluded that the most cost effective method should be used for the collection of household waste, as long as this does not adversely impact on the objectives of waste minimisation and maximisation of recycling.  Wheeled bins may be more problematic for older and disabled residents to use but the council will continue to offer an assisted collection as part of the small pilot being undertaken.

This Council is concerned about the impact of the government’s spending cuts on the most vulnerable residents in our community, since they face losing highly valued support services which promote independence and provide vital respite for their carers.

This Council notes the results of the latest Annual Residents’ Survey, which, alongside record levels of residents saying the Council is efficient and well run and offers value for money, finds that 72% of disabled residents say Merton Council is doing a good job, an increase on last year. The percentage who think the council is efficient and well run has increased significantly on last year and the proportion who agree that the council listens to concerns of local residents has also increased. In addition, the percentage of disabled people who feel the council involves residents in making decisions is higher than the pan-London score.  Nonetheless, disabled people are less satisfied with council, public transport and health services than non disabled people in Merton and the pan-London results.  This is something the Council, along with its partners in health and public transport, need to address, notwithstanding the difficulties resulting from our much reduced funding from central government.

This Council therefore resolves to urge Cabinet to:

a)      Write to the Chancellor and to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government outlining the impact the government’s cuts to local government funding are having on vulnerable local residents;

b)      Do all it can within the significantly reduced funding it has available to keep our day centres open and examine in detail the proposed £200,000 cut to day care support for disabled adults provided at the High Path and All Saints day centres, which the administration has chosen to bring forward as an alternative to closing the centre as previously proposed by the Conservative group, and which scrutiny has been looking at since November, and ask officers to continue to try to identify whether there are any alternative efficiency savings for 2015-16 that do not impact on front line services, bearing in mind however that we still have to find a further £15m of savings due to reductions in our funding from central government and that as yet the Scrutiny panel has not been able to identify any alternative savings; and

c)      Consider the impact of the government’s closure of the ILF and how Merton uses the devolved funding to best cater for those residents who have the greatest assessed needs, with a commitment that this funding will be ring fenced to the adult social care budget based on the principle of those most in need getting their fair share; and

d)      As in previous years, ensure there is continued scrutiny by the Overview and Scrutiny Commission or the relevant panel of the £5.4 million of new savings proposals in Adult Social Care which have been brought forward in the usual manner in accordance with the budget timetable.