PPlog

Just to consolidate what I’m saying to Norfolk County Council, these are the basic requirements. These requirements were operative from 1st April 2008. The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, Section 228 (Transitional arrangements) says“ ”(1) When a local authority becomes subject to the duty in section 221(1), it also becomes subject to the following duty. (2) That duty (“the temporary duty”) is to ensure until the relevant time that there are means by which the activities specified in section 221(2) can be carried on in the local authority’s area.“ Section 221(2) referred to above says: ”(2) The activities for a local authority’s area are— (a) promoting, and supporting, the involvement of people in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of local care services; (b) enabling people to monitor for the purposes of their consideration of matters mentioned in subsection (3), and to review for those purposes, the commissioning and provision of local care services

I’ve just posted my comments to the review. They are (in essence). As a social worker at the time, directly involved in the provision of social care, I would submit that the rot started when Thatcher began to privatise social care in the 1980s. Before then we should all remember social care was a social right - services, including residential services, directly provided by each local authority. Local Authority direct provision under the National Assistance Acts was by no means perfect but it certainly did not involve private companies scrabbling for profit out of people’s care needs. The only civilised and humane way of delivering social care needs is to remove commerce from the equation. Obviate financial profiteering on the backs of people’s misfortunes.

Today’s letter to Norfolk county Council (see blog entry 30.04.08.): Head of Law, Norfolk County Council, County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich, Nr1 2UU. Hello. Formal Complaint 2nd attempt. I sent the attached formal complaint dated 30.04.08. On that same day. The letter was sent 1st class and Mr Hayman’s office would have received it the next day. The letter was not marked confidential nor did it have any other marking. Your complaints policy states: “The complaint will be acknowledged by letter or email within five working days of receipt of the complaint by the Council. The standard for giving a substantive response is 15 working days from the date of acknowledgement. The target for meeting this standard is 95% of complaints. The acknowledgement letter will include an explanation as to the action being taken and by whom.” I have received no acknowledgement. The official LINks Guide No 7 says: “The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 makes clear that Local Auth