Daily Archives: 17 Feb 2018

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17 Feb 2018

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Accountability, Accountable Care Organisation, East Devon Alliance, Health and Social Care (local), Martin Shaw, NHS (local), Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

Important health meeting in Seaton on 23 March

From the blog of DCC East Devon Alliance councillor Martin Shaw:

“Seaton and Area Health Matters – Going Forward Together

Friday 23rd March 2018 – Seaton Town Hall

9.00 for 9.30 am start – 1.00pm

Book here: https://goo.gl/forms/7laMUjhByt8F0w053 (right click on link to open booking form)

You are invited to participate in this community led event with key stakeholders around the future health and wellbeing of all the people in our communities, in response to the new landscape affecting Seaton and surrounding area as a result of NHS and Government policies advocating Place-Based Care in health provision and cross-sector collaborative working with community groups

The aim: To discuss what we know, where there are gaps/challenges and how, as a community we will address these to ensure collaborative approaches to co-design and co-produce local health services/activities that meet the needs of all the people in our communities.

Invitees: Management and senior level employees and volunteers / trustees from community, voluntary and social enterprise sector as well as public and private organisations.

Area to include: Seaton, Colyford & Colyton, Beer, Axmouth, Branscombe

PROGRAMME:

Welcome: Mayor of Seaton – Cllr Jack Rowland

Community Context:

Dr Mark Welland – Chairman of Seaton & District Hospital League of Friends
Roger Trapani – Community Representative, Devon Health and Care Forum
Charlotte Hanson – Chief Officer, Action East Devon
Strategic and Services Overview – Place Based Care:

Laura Waterton – Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
Richard Anderson – Health and Social Care Community Services Manager
Dr Jennie Button – Social Prescribing Lead – Ways 2 Wellbeing project in Seaton
Workshop, Networking and Discussion will form the main part of this event:

Workshop 1 – What is working well and what are the challenges for Seaton and surrounding area?
Workshop 2 – Working together to improve health and wellbeing outcomes? What support do we need?”

Important community conversation on health and wellbeing in Seaton and area to begin on 23rd March

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17 Feb 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Claire Wright, Council tax, DCC

DCC vote more cuts to keep reserves

Claire Wright and other independent councillors tried to persuade DCC to fund services rather than add to reserves – Tories voted to keep reserves.

From Claire Wright’s blig:

“… Over £155m worth of cuts have now been made to Devon County Council by central government, since austerity began in 2010. That’s around 80 per cent of the council’s core funding… gone…. …

It emerged in the past week that an extra £5m will be squirrelled away in Devon’s reserves, in case of financial difficulty.
But vital services are being relentlessly cut – for the EIGHTH year running – council tax is rocketing and the county’s people are suffering.

With council tax rising by 20 per cent in just seven years. That’s £250 for an average band D property, while wages stagnate – Devon’s residents (and people all over the country) are being ripped off by a Conservative government that claims to be a government of low taxation.

– 30 health visitor posts are to be cut which will hit families that most need support, especially those with babies and young children. The Independent Group is proposing that part of the £5m is used to prevent those losses

– Foster carers who look after the most damaged and challenging children could lose around £100 a week to foster carers who look after less damaged less challenging children.

This income cut is in addition to earlier cuts in allowances over recent years. The result of these cuts could see experienced dedicated foster carers struggle to make ends meet and be forced to leave. It is causing much anxiety … and ultimately it will be the children who suffer. The Independent Group is proposing that part of the £5m is used to shore up the income of foster carers

– The schools counselling service is set to be lost at a time when anxiety and depression among young people is soaring and when many are now being forced to PAY for their own counselling sessions. The Independent Group is proposing that part of the £5m is used to ensure this essential service continues

– People in Devon’s towns and villages are falling over dangerous paving stones every day. The Independent Group is proposing that part of the £5m is spent on making far more pavements safer, especially for elderly people who are most likely to hurt themselves and end up in hospital

And what of Devon’s MPs, especially the Conservative MPs, who ALWAYS toe the party line on cuts to our council budgets, despite requests each year from the leader of this council to stand up for the people of Devon?

Well this year, guess what? It’s no different. All Conservative MPs who were present in the chamber last week voted in favour of yet more suffering. …”

http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/20m_of_devon_service_cuts_voted_through_as_council_tax_rises_by_around_five

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17 Feb 2018

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Coastal communities, Exmouth, Flooding, Grenadier, Regeneration

Anyone else underwhelmed by Exmouth’s watersports centre?

And wouldn’t you think the safety changes might have been foreseen?

“Peter Quincey, director of Grenadier Estates, said: “Following our community consultation and the feedback received, we have focused on water safety in consultation with East Devon District Council and have made amendments to the design.

“The amendments to the design include setting the building back by four metres to allow a more substantial space between the building and the sea wall, and increasing the rigging areas to accommodate additional water sports equipment.

“To improve the visual appeal of the building further, we have included additional stone cladding and designated more space for planting trees.

“These additions have resulted in a reduction of 14 parking spaces.”

http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/grenadier-estates-statement-watersports-centre-application-1-5397490

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17 Feb 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Council tax, Inequality

“Poverty is now so visible that even the richest can see it”

Owl wonders how many will cough up for a guilt tax – most of these people didn’t get rich by helping the poor!

“Officially, it’s not a guilt tax. Westminster council prefers the term “community contribution” to describe the idea that its millionaire residents might like to make a voluntary donation on top of council tax. It is, they say, merely a chance for the wealthiest to “invest in their neighbourhood”. Perish the thought that they may have anything to feel guilty about.

But whatever you call it, attempting to appeal to the social consciences of the super-rich is surely a sign of changing times. That a flagship Tory council should be dabbling in new forms of redistribution is interesting in itself. That it began considering the idea a few months after the Grenfell Tower fire, which had some of Kensington’s more liberal-minded millionaires asking why their council hadn’t charged them more and housed their neighbours decently, is more interesting still, given that Westminster’s guilt money is earmarked partly for tackling homelessness….

The significance of the guilt tax is that, according to the council leader, Nickie Aiken, the idea came from wealthy residents themselves, who began asking last year if they could pay more. Most tellingly of all, she says it is most popular among those living in “the most expensive homes”, reversing the normal finding that tax rises are wildly popular only with people who won’t actually be paying them. This is starting to feel less like a conventional tax, and more like the biblical concept of guilt offerings: pay up, cleanse yourself of the perceived sin of unwittingly perpetuating gross wealth inequality, and perhaps you might avoid a plague of locusts.

… Relying on charitable donations, which could dry up overnight, to fund essential public services feels precarious and wrong. But the pragmatic attraction of a guilt tax is that, like the decision by the Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, to donate part of his salary to a homelessness fund, it is quick and achievable, and it beats wringing hands.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/17/poverty-visible-richest-grenfell-homelessness