INVESTIGATIONS INTO ABUSE IN COUNCIL SOCIAL SERVICES BLOCKED

3.49.00pm GMT Thu 19th Feb 2009

At yesterday's Full Council meeting Liberal Democrat councillors asked the Chief Executive of Gloucestershire County Council to investigate the cases of bullying and abuse of vulnerable people in Gloucestershire.

The Conservative councillors all voted to block any investigation into the cases of abuse and bullying found by the Commission for Social Care inspectors who presented a report to the council's cabinet on February 4th.

Cllr Deryck Nash, Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet member for adult care said: "The commission's report was the most damning I've read in my time as a councillor. The Commission discovered cases of people with learning disabilities who have been bullied and elderly people who have been left stranded without support. Just one case of abuse in Gloucestershire is a case too many. The leadership at Shire Hall is disgraceful, the Inspectors report is clear, a new team of cabinet members must take charge of social care to reverse the poor performance that leaves vulnerable people at risk"

Key findings of the report include:

Social Care for vulnerable people is poor

Financial abuse of people who sign over control of their finances to care homes and agencies

People with learning disabilities have had to put up with being bullied

Young people who move into adult social care are at risk of abuse

Cllr Jeremy Hilton, Liberal Democrat leader said: "There is an appalling complacency among the Tory cabinet members at Shire Hall. Our request for an investigation into the abuse and bullying that has been happening here in Gloucestershire has been rejected by the administration. The council must do everything possible to prevent abuse of vulnerable people but instead the cabinet members are sitting back and simply moaning about the report and how it was written"

Notes:

1. The Commission for Social Care report investigated adult social care services for Safeguarding vulnerable adults and considered services for people with learning disabilities.

2. The Commission declared the council had a poor service for safeguarding adults and official graded a poor service, the lowest grading possible. This follows the failure of Social Services overall which were downgraded from a two-star to a poor one-star service last year.

3. The report was presented to the cabinet on 4th February, the council did not allow the inspectors to speak to members of the council about the report findings.

4. The current Conservative administration has reversed all of the achievements of the previous Liberal Democrat administration. The previous report on social services praised the work of the Lib Dem administration, which had achieved a 2 star rating and praise from the Inspectors about the future improvements to the service.

5. The Commission report identifies the changes in Adult Social Care policy which are responsible for the decline in care were made in 2007 by the current Conservative administration.

ENDS