Charity Row Brews As Council Attemps To Cut Millions In Social Care Costs

As Suffolk battles to shed millions pounds from its social care budget by asking charities to take over the workload, the county council has been accused of making late payments to the volunteer groups and putting them into financial difficulties.

The allegation has been made by opposition Labour councillors, which claimed last night that the Tories had presided over “a huge breakdown in their dealings with the voluntary sector.”

Since taking control of the county council in 2005, the Conservatives have moved toward privatisation – shifting from providing the majority of services in adult and social care to one of buying services from the private sector and voluntary bodies such as charities. However, Labour claims the council has been late in paying some voluntary sector providers and presided over complicated payments scheme leaving charities and others confused over what they were owed.

The group further claimed the council concentrated on dealing with the Suffolk Association of Independent Care Providers to the virtual exclusion of other groups, had inadequate cover in place to cover with sickness among invoice staff, and presided over three overlapping systems for processing invoices.

Bryony Rudkin, Labour’s spokesman for adult care and community services, said: “Late to pay their providers, a lack of proper consultation, and complicated bureaucratic procedures – is this administration really up to the task it set itself? If the Conservatives are incapable of running their current outsourced services properly, how can they expect to get the voluntary sector and the people of Suffolk on board with their latest rush to privatisation?”

Labour leader Julian Swainson said: “We need to know why the Conservatives failed to think through basic administrative questions such as planning adequate sick cover for staff in charge of payments and why the voluntary organisations were informed so late about what there were owed. Private, voluntary and independent bodies do tremendous work in helping people across Suffolk.”

Jonathan Moore, chief executive of Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations, said he was aware of a couple of instances in which charities had received their grants late and could have faced some difficulties. He added: “We have been working with the council’s officers to resolve the problem. Everyone has the best interests of Suffolk at heart and I hope systems will now be in place to ensure the smooth operation of payments.”

Graham Newman, portfolio holder for adult and community care, said he knew of four late payments out of 106 grants paid, and stressed the county council was making efforts to ensure it didn’t happen again. “Labour began the outsourcing of services in 2003 and there has been no great expansion since then,” said Mr Newman. Adult day care will be taken over by the voluntary sector in the couple of years and I am confident that the payments – many of which are annual and up front – will operate smoothly.”