KENT TORIES IGNORE CONSULTATION RESULTS ON CHARGES FOR DOMICILIARY CARE

At a meeting of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee of Kent County Council yesterday the Tory Cabinet Member for Adult Social Services refused to reconsider the decision to increase domiciliary care charges by 30% despite a consultation exercise which resulted in a 66% vote against the proposal.

In an exercise which resulted in 2294 total responses, 1635 people directly answered the question as to whether they accepted the proposal. 1072 (66%) said no and 563 (34%) said yes. Despite this the Tory Cabinet Member refused to look again at the decision.

Leslie Christie – KCC Labour Group spokesperson said:

“The people of Kent must wonder what is the point of responding to Tory KCC’s consultation exercises – any outcome which doesn’t suit the Administration is just ignored.

The Tories decided in their budget this year to spend the money they receive from these increased charges on creating Kent TV which means nothing to the most vulnerable people in Kent, yet they are being asked to pay for it.”

Mike Eddy –KCC Labour Group Leader said:

“The people of Kent who receive domiciliary care deserve better than this. A 30% increase is unacceptable at any time but to have it imposed all at once is totally unacceptable. Labour Members were able to persuade the Scrutiny Committee to ask the Cabinet member to reconsider that proposal and, if he intended to go ahead with the increase, to look at introducing the increase in stages to soften the blow on the most vulnerable."