Why should public funds be used to bail
out
shocking Tory decision making?
Councillor Bridgett to Councillor Oliver:
Dear Cllr Oliver,
Please forgive me for having taken 36 hours to respond to the
evidently rushed proposals that went through the cabinet on Tuesday morning
that switched the funding of the bailout of Advance Northumberland from using
COVID-19 funds (as agreed at the cabinet meeting on the 23rd February) to using
funding from budget underspends in the 2020/21 financial year.
Something didn’t sit quite right with me when you casually
mentioned in your preamble that the £11.1 million going into this reserve fund
to bail out Advance, was coming from “finance and corporate service budgets”.
As someone who actually read the 50 page report, based on what I
had read in that report at the time, it sounded like you were being very
liberal with the truth.
So, you’ll forgive me if I did not take what you had said at face
value. I have since spent the last 36 hours seeking clarity and fully
researching the matter further.
And would you believe, it is exactly as I thought and had
originally interpreted the report.
For those members of the council who may not have seen the report
and for those members of the cabinet who maybe haven’t read it properly either,
the report can be found by following this link to the council website:
https://northumberland.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s2140/Financial%20Performance.pdf
You see, the money to bail out Advance is no longer coming from
unringfenced COVID-19 funding but is instead coming from budget underspends as
outlined on page 4 of the report.
Now would you believe, the biggest contributor to those
underspends is not actually the “finance and corporate services” budgets as
Cllr Oliver might like you to believe but is in fact the Adult Social Care
& Commissioning budget. To the tune of over £8 million.
Now as I understand it and I have sought clarification on this,
the total budget underspends within the council are around £18 million.
And as agreed at cabinet only 36 hours ago, rather than invest
that underspend in “Recovery Northumberland” and use it to
improve council services as we come out of this pandemic and as I think the
general public would expect us to do.
Instead, you have chosen to use those underspends to bail out the
mistakes made by individuals at Advance Northumberland. Mistakes that went
against the council’s shareholder representative advice, mistakes that were
based on no visible external legal advice and mistakes that only got board
approval after the actions had been taken and enacted.
But what really is disgusting about this whole thing is the fact
that the Adult Services & Commissioning budget has only had these
underspends as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Either from the revenue generated as a result of Covid or as a
direct result of the council not having to meet the care home fees of some of
the poorest, most vulnerable residents of Northumberland, who have sadly passed
away as a result of COVID-19.
I am genuinely interested as to how you are going to deny this one
or spin it as some sort of falsehood because the information is there for all
to see in the publicly available report that went to Cabinet on Tuesday morning.
To quote: "Due to the unprecedented level of
turnover in purchased care in the first half of the year an underspend of
£6.038 million is forecast".
Is "unprecedented level of turnover in purchased
care" the administration's way of saying "the
deaths of Northumberland residents in residential care as a result of
Covid-19"? You don't need to respond. I already know the answer to
that question - I've done my research!
Or the extra £101,000 that the council has generated due to "the
increased level of vulnerable people who require help making decisions
regarding their welfare and/or financial affairs."
I thought your attempts to use the Covid-19 funding for this were
bad enough but is bailing out the mistakes of Advance Northumberland, with
money saved on the back of some quite horrific and traumatising circumstances
such as the loss of family members in care homes, really the way the residents
of Northumberland and those husbands, wives, sons, daughters and grandchildren
would really want that money spent? or would it not be better used improving
our frontline services across the council to help them and us emerge from this
horrific pandemic. Or better yet! Use it to help residents and businesses that
have fallen through the cracks because of the criteria for other forms of
support.
I would say I am shocked but after the last 9 months, very little
seems to shock me anymore.
Yours sincerely,
Steven Bridgett
Councillor Sanderson to Tory Members:
Councillor Bridgett to Councillor Oliver
response to above:
Well given that no one
has been willing to respond to my email (below).
And the Leader of the council only feels it appropriate to
communicate with conservative group members on this subject matter.
I will respond to the Leaders email to conservative group members.
For the benefit of those who are not members of the conservative
group - I have attached a copy of the said email.
I will respond to the points accordingly.
1,) I genuinely could not care that there is an election on the
way. What I am bothered about is the fact this council is proposing to use
money that could be spent on council services in the forthcoming financial
year, to bail out Advance Northumberland.
2,) You use the word "us" when referencing so-called
instances of people allegedly having a go at the conservative group. I am not
having a go at the conservative group! I have always found a majority of the
conservative group to be decent individuals! What I am raising are issues and
decisions that are being taken by a small number of the conservative group that
impact this whole council and the services it delivers.
2,) As for the leaks, it's evident that they are also coming from
within your own ranks! Perhaps some of your members no longer believing some of
the denials and outright lies.
3,) So you've admitted there is a claim (we all knew anyway) and
the reasons for that claim. And that you are evidently looking to settle that
claim. What happened to the statement in the press that the council will
vigorously defend this claim?
4,) So you're allegedly now not going to use underspend from
within the Adult Social Care & Commissioning budget to meet the cost of the
bailout for Advance. I'm not sure how this is possible given the levels of
funding required but the fact you're willing to use funding from that
department, along with Children's Services and Local Services underspend given
that it is not possible to create the reserve fund to bail out Advance
Northumberland without using underspends from those departments is appalling in
itself.
If there are underspends, these underspends should be being used
to support and improve our frontline services in the forthcoming financial year
as we emerge from Covid-19. Or better yet, use this money to support local
businesses that have fallen through the cracks in terms of support from the
government.
It is these services that our residents care about! Not bailing
out the council's own company because of the monumental mistakes that have been
made as a result of certain decisions.
If you, as Leader, are happy with using council service
underspends to bail Advance Northumberland (which is the exact decision the
cabinet voted unanimously to do on Tuesday) rather than spending it improving
our own council services or supporting local businesses, then at least have the
backbone to come out and defend that decision! A decision that you voted in
favour of.
Yours sincerely,
Steven Bridgett
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