Fife care homes: bid to oust social work committee chairman Tim Brett

Two Fife councillors will this week call for a vote of no confidence in the social work committee chairman over the controversial care homes issue.

Labour members Tom Adams and Kay Morrison will also demand the immediate resignation of Tim Brett as committee chairman at Thursday’s full Fife Council meeting.

The bid to unseat Mr Brett is the latest twist in the row embroiling the council since the February 1 decision to privatise care home services. Social work committee vice-chairman David Torrance has already resigned and is likely to be replaced on Thursday.

Mr Torrance is said to be disgusted at the decision to close all 10 council homes and replace them with private or not-for-profit sector homes, after he previously received an assurance that two new homes would continue to be run by the local authority.

Last night independent councillor Bryan Poole submitted a complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman over the matter, after an internal complaint to council chief executive Ronnie Hinds was rejected. Mr Poole claims some processes used in reaching the agreement were “incompetent” and risked bringing the local authority into disrepute.

The SNP/Lib Dem administration has defended the decision and its handling of the situation, saying the homes were deteriorating and the council’s precarious financial situation meant they had no choice but to look to the private sector.

Assurances have been given that no homes will close until alternatives are available, a process which could take several years. But the issue has proved to be one of the most controversial in Fife Council’s history and the fury shows no signs of abating.

In Thursday’s motion, councillors Adams and Morrison will call on the council to agree the social work and health committee chairman has a key role in providing political leadership for the administration in relation to the delivery of social work services.

The motion adds, “Council further believes the chair of the social work and health committee should be held accountable to the council and to the people of Fife for the administration’s ill-conceived decisions and failures in relation to social work services for elderly and vulnerable people in Fife.”

The motion criticises the privatisation move and, in addition, the administration’s refusal to allow all councillors to discuss the matter, the situation on delayed discharges in Fife, the increase in charges for home care services and the decisions to cut the pension collection and home shopping service and to impose charges for community alarms.

The councillors will also call on members to agree that “the decisions and failures of the administration threaten to undermine the wide range of vital social services that have been built up over many years for the benefit of Fife.”

Following the social work meeting on February 1, four opposition councillors wrote to Mr Hinds claiming that a motion by Mr Brett which eventually led to the committee’s decision was “grossly misleading and liable to give an inaccurate and misleading picture to the wider public.”

The complaint by Labour leader Alex Rowley and independents Bryan Poole, Andrew Rodger and Willie Clarke hinged on a motion calling on members to confirm the unanimous view of a cross-party review group that Fife Council needed to start on a programme of replacing the council’s residential care places.

Mr Rowley told The Courier at the time that what had in fact been agreed by the review group in 2008 was that Fife Council should remain a direct provider of residential care services, which was “substantially and materially very different” to Mr Brett’s motion.

Mr Hinds has since replied, saying he was satisfied the motion was competent and had been addressed by the chairman ruling that there had been a material change in Fife Council’s financial circumstances.

“The motion is simply restating an objective that the council needs to start on a programme of replacing the council’s residential care places,” he said. “In proposing this, I do not consider there was any necessity for the motion to refer in detail to the decision made by the social work and health committee in 2008.”

Unhappy at this response, Mr Poole has, however, taken the matter to the ombudsman on behalf of his colleagues, stating, “The motion is at best sloppily constructed or at worst a deliberate attempt to mislead the public into thinking/believing there has been no significant change in policy around residential care homes, and that indeed Fife Council was merely implementing what had been agreed unanimously at a Fife Council meeting in 2008.

“Either way, it is a distortion of what was actually agreed at the social work and health committee in June, 2008.”

He added, “We are convinced that the words in the motion would not stand up to scrutiny in a court of law, but more importantly they would not stand up to scrutiny in the court of the general public and, as such, if allowed to stand unchallenged are guilty of doing a great dis-service with regard to proper and honest accountability to the wider public.”
Labour members Tom Adams and Kay Morrison will also demand the immediate resignation of Tim Brett as committee chairman at Thursday’s full Fife Council meeting.

The bid to unseat Mr Brett is the latest twist in the row embroiling the council since the February 1 decision to privatise care home services. Social work committee vice-chairman David Torrance has already resigned and is likely to be replaced on Thursday.

Mr Torrance is said to be disgusted at the decision to close all 10 council homes and replace them with private or not-for-profit sector homes, after he previously received an assurance that two new homes would continue to be run by the local authority.

Last night independent councillor Bryan Poole submitted a complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman over the matter, after an internal complaint to council chief executive Ronnie Hinds was rejected. Mr Poole claims some processes used in reaching the agreement were “incompetent” and risked bringing the local authority into disrepute.

The SNP/Lib Dem administration has defended the decision and its handling of the situation, saying the homes were deteriorating and the council’s precarious financial situation meant they had no choice but to look to the private sector.

Assurances have been given that no homes will close until alternatives are available, a process which could take several years. But the issue has proved to be one of the most controversial in Fife Council’s history and the fury shows no signs of abating.

In Thursday’s motion, councillors Adams and Morrison will call on the council to agree the social work and health committee chairman has a key role in providing political leadership for the administration in relation to the delivery of social work services.

The motion adds, “Council further believes the chair of the social work and health committee should be held accountable to the council and to the people of Fife for the administration’s ill-conceived decisions and failures in relation to social work services for elderly and vulnerable people in Fife.”

The motion criticises the privatisation move and, in addition, the administration’s refusal to allow all councillors to discuss the matter, the situation on delayed discharges in Fife, the increase in charges for home care services and the decisions to cut the pension collection and home shopping service and to impose charges for community alarms.

The councillors will also call on members to agree that “the decisions and failures of the administration threaten to undermine the wide range of vital social services that have been built up over many years for the benefit of Fife.”

Following the social work meeting on February 1, four opposition councillors wrote to Mr Hinds claiming that a motion by Mr Brett which eventually led to the committee’s decision was “grossly misleading and liable to give an inaccurate and misleading picture to the wider public.”

The complaint by Labour leader Alex Rowley and independents Bryan Poole, Andrew Rodger and Willie Clarke hinged on a motion calling on members to confirm the unanimous view of a cross-party review group that Fife Council needed to start on a programme of replacing the council’s residential care places.

Mr Rowley told The Courier at the time that what had in fact been agreed by the review group in 2008 was that Fife Council should remain a direct provider of residential care services, which was “substantially and materially very different” to Mr Brett’s motion.

Mr Hinds has since replied, saying he was satisfied the motion was competent and had been addressed by the chairman ruling that there had been a material change in Fife Council’s financial circumstances.

“The motion is simply restating an objective that the council needs to start on a programme of replacing the council’s residential care places,” he said. “In proposing this, I do not consider there was any necessity for the motion to refer in detail to the decision made by the social work and health committee in 2008.”

Unhappy at this response, Mr Poole has, however, taken the matter to the ombudsman on behalf of his colleagues, stating, “The motion is at best sloppily constructed or at worst a deliberate attempt to mislead the public into thinking/believing there has been no significant change in policy around residential care homes, and that indeed Fife Council was merely implementing what had been agreed unanimously at a Fife Council meeting in 2008.

“Either way, it is a distortion of what was actually agreed at the social work and health committee in June, 2008.”

He added, “We are convinced that the words in the motion would not stand up to scrutiny in a court of law, but more importantly they would not stand up to scrutiny in the court of the general public and, as such, if allowed to stand unchallenged are guilty of doing a great dis-service with regard to proper and honest accountability to the wider public.”