"The people who are making these cuts don't have a clue what these services do, who these services help and why these services are important" Christian, care leaver
Last night, over one hundred people met at a No More Cuts! public meeting at Swinton Royal Legion to unite up to a dozen anti cuts campaigns in Salford. They heard how ninety year old women falling out of bed could spend the night freezing on the floor…They heard how vulnerable adults could be left on street corners bemused and frightened…They heard how families would have to be homeless and in crisis before being helped…
…And, politically, most disturbing and disgusting of all, they heard how Salford Council is already implementing cuts before consultations have finished and Salford people have had their say.
After some passionate speeches from those who will bear the brunt of the cuts – service users, families and workers – those at the meeting voted to call a massive protest rally against Salford Council cuts on May 17th on the lawns of the Civic Centre, a week before the local elections.
Speaking against cuts to transport and passenger assistants (escorts), Noreen Bailey - who has two sons totally dependent for all their needs - told how even Salford MP Hazel Blears had been `alarmed that no-one had been informed about the cuts and that people were already being taken off transport'. Hazel wrote to Mayor Ian Stewart to get a consultation (see here) but, while this is ongoing, a worker told the meeting how the Council is currently actively removing people from using the transport…
"By the time the consultation's finished, there will be not much of the service left to fight for" he said "We think this is wrong and that the Council should hold off its programme until the consultation is finished and the Salford people have spoken. What is the point of a consultation if they are not going to listen to what you say?"
He explained how the Council's plans to cut transport for adult social care and to remove all passenger assistants was a "fundamental and catastrophic error…it is an integral part of a service user's life". The escorts, he said are trained and fully aware of the service user's medical, behavioural and physical needs… "A lone driver will not notice anyone at the rear of the vehicle having a seizure or having behavioural problems with other passengers. Without passenger assistants the journey will become unsafe."
He added that the Council is planning to put people on the Ring and Ride service which is already facing a cut of £700,000, or to put them into taxis which will not ensure service users arrive safely inside their destination, putting them at great risk.
The point was underlined by Noreen who said "My sons need their escorts, they are their ears, their eyes and their carers until they get to their day centres, their respite centres and their homes. If these escorts were to be finished the transport would not be appropriate as it would put our sons and daughters in danger. Without the escorts we could not have our transport."
Noreen gave the example of her third son, who is autistic and was sent in a black cab to Bolton College with no escort. The driver dropped him off and didn't take him inside… "He wandered around the College until lunchtime bewildered until a tutor asked what the matter was; he just wanted to go home – and when he got home he was so upset he has never been back since. This shows what can happen.
"We need to show the Mayor and all his assistant `maids' that we won't take this sitting down, and that anyone with an ounce of decency would be there fighting with us" she added "I know a lot of us feel a little down knowing that this cannot be overturned…But if we fight hard enough and stand together it is possible."
The meeting heard how Notts Council has already overturned its decision on cutting transport for vulnerable adults after listening to its citizens… "We've got to win this fight" concluded the transport worker "because if we don't they are going to walk all over us."
John Dolan railed against cuts to Care On Call with his personal story of his mum who is ninety and lives on her own…
"For me there should be no question that Care On Call cuts should be even considered" he said "So we value our elderly parents? The answer is `Yes we do'. Without Care On Call I couldn't sleep at night. If the service is withdrawn what happens? My mum falls out of bed – does she sleep on the floor all night? She's worth more than that. I cannot even consider that she should be in that situation; why should she suffer for Salford City Council? They have to look after our elderly people."
He added that there are four thousand elderly people in Salford living at home and that Care On Call looks after a lot of those people… "What's going to happen?" he asked "Are they going to send in paramedics and put them in hospital? It will cost a lot more money. Are we going to put them in a nursing home? No. Someone in the latter days of their lives should be happy in their own environment and be cared for by their families and Care On Call. Why should we allow that to be stopped now? There's no reason."
He was followed by a lady, almost in tears, who spoke of how she had to use Salford Council's Housing Options service three times to stop her from becoming homeless.
"I hit bad times, then lost everything in a house fire, I walked out with my life and the clothes I stood in and again they came and helped me" Caroline recalled "If it wasn't for the likes of Salford Housing Options I wouldn't be where I am today and there's people a lot more vulnerable than me. I just don't know where I'd be without them."
The Housing Options team help with preventing homelessness but a worker told the meeting that Salford Council now wants to move to a statutory only service…
"What that means" she explained "Is that if someone gets into difficulties, we're not going to help them until they get into significant crisis. If a landlord wants to evict a client because something isn't going well, at the moment we would step in and try and keep the accommodation for that person. If the proposals go ahead we will simply wait for that person to be evicted…when they are in absolute crisis.
"That means rather than keeping children living in the communities that they have been living in, providing support and being told that they can stay at school and live in the family home, we will wait until that completely breaks down and will do what we call our statutory duty, put them in a Bed and Breakfast, far away from where they live, with limited chances of going to school."
She added that the cost of preventing this is between £500 and £1,500 per household. The cost of taking families through the homelessness route is £9,000…
"I don't need to be an accountant to know that this doesn't make sense" she said "Any savings made through the proposals will be completely wiped out. We're saying `Would you put a £100 fence up at the top of a cliff to stop people falling off, or would you put the emergency services down at the bottom?' People in Salford are going to struggle with no hope and no services."
Underlining the point was Christian, a care leaver currently receiving help. He made the point that, while the Council is saying that families should pick up the pieces of the cuts, care leavers don't have support from families and have no other place to go.
Most poignantly, he said that he had asked Nick Page, Head of the Council's Children's Services how the cuts in supported tenancies will effect care leavers
"He said that wouldn't effect care leavers, and the reason he said that was he didn't even know what supported tenancies did to support care leavers" Christian explained, adding to much applause "The people who are making these cuts don't have a clue what these services do, who these services help and why these services are important."
And this is the main point, the meeting was told, why the anti cuts campaigns in Salford have to unite and speak out. Close a library or swimming pool and everyone understands what is going on – but unless people need services like housing options, Care On Call, Welfare and Debt Advice, floating mental health support workers, transport escorts, it's very hard for the public to know what they actually do…
…Councillors, on other hand, should make it their business to know about these services. And, to their disgrace, there was only one Salford councillor – Peter Wheeler - present at the meeting to hear how the cuts will effect those on the front line. Steve North, branch secretary Salford City UNISON, made it very clear what is going on…
"This year there is a fire sale of services for the vulnerable, to the point where there'll be nothing left" he said, adding that while everyone understands that the cuts are the result of ConDem Government policies, "What are the councillors doing to stop it? Not a lot. We've had four years of the same answer – `There's nothing we can do'. If the people who sit in the council chamber aren't coming up with a solution, we have to – the solution lies in this room."
He encouraged people to stand in the local elections as anti cuts councillors, and called for Salford Council to demand a public meeting with the leaders of the three main political parties, led by a delegation of people who are campaigning against the cuts.
"The Mayor has asked for meetings with the Government but I have no faith in him to deliver the message that needs to be heard" he said "David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg should have to sit in a room with our people and listen to what the cuts actually mean."
The final word went to 82 year old Bill, who said "I don't think we should lie down and take what they are proposing to do…We fought two world wars for this…but the vulnerable people, the pensioners, the disabled, they are not getting a fair crack. I'm saying we should all stand up and show them what we're made of, the Government should take notice of the people."
* The public meeting voted unanimously to call a mass protest on the Civic Centre lawns on Saturday 17th May, to demand that Salford Council calls a meeting with the leaders of the three main political parties, led by a delegation of Salford people at the forefront of the cuts, and encourages anti cuts council candidates to stand at the local elections.
* see also previous Salford Star article and follow links to read about each campaign - click here
Photos by Steven Speed
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