Will the Music be turned off for our Children?

Searching the Internet which can be a quite addictive pastime, I ended up looking at areas completely different from the original search! I came across the so called Henley review which has been looking at funding for music support services to Councils over the country. The reason I found it as there are a number of Boroughs who were looking anxiously at what would be in this report as it was promised before Christmas and delayed now so long that many music services will run out of funds at the end of March. This would include Walsall's most outstanding music service based at Forest Arts achieving such excellent results in areas of serious deprivation such as the ward I represent in Blakenall. This service which consistently receives the highest possible rating marks from their OFSTED reports. Supplying every school in Walsall this cut of a massive £850,000 , if the news due in 2 weeks is a cut as expected, is a dreadful kick in the teeth for the dedicated and talented team based at the Forest Arts Centre and to all those young people who have responded to their teaching.



I can hear the alarm bells ringing   and I hope that the noise of protesting by  all those thousands of pupils from every school in walsall who make music and benefit so much from that experience will be deafening to the those short sighted Philistines who seem to wish to make Walsall a cultural desert.

Prepare to mount the biggest and noisiest ever demonstration in protest seen in Walsall if those in the current Tory/ Liberal alliance down in London decide to pull the funding..




published by electronic means by Ian Robertson 87 Belvidere Rd walsall WS1 3au tel 01922 634642.

There are fair cuts and on the other hand there are amputations.

Are we being ripped off, vandalised and abandoned by Walsall Council ?


I read that Walsall council have ‘saved’ over £1million each year on the contract for recycling by renegotiating the contract. We learn that there are negotiations to reduce the cost of the SERCO contract that Walsall by £2.5Million to look after education in Walsall. Walsall signed an extension of this contract for another 12 years . This in spite of the fact that education standards in Walsall are at a dismal failure being 151st  out of 171 in the Country. We have improved a bit but basically we continue to fail most of our young people.. if we did not have the results from Queen Marys’ schools we would be even lower. I suspect that now Walsall education is the only education contract run by SERCO ( all other councils have given them the sack) all failing schools will be forced into becoming Academies to allow SERCO to make a good profit for their shareholders and not lose out by imposition of any penalty clauses… our children are of course not the priority… the shareholders are!! Such a rip off! How long have we been overpaying for these services?

Then we have the Tarmac contract with clauses here which cost us dear when we wish to install for example dropped curbs at pavement level to allow wheelchair access where the cost has jumped from £350 under the Council to over £1000 under Tarmac. What value for council tax payers of Walsall.

We had the AMEY contract that cost us Council tax payers £7.5 Million due to a set of clauses so badly checked by Walsall Council allowing another private company to walk all over us and take us again to the cleaners.

We have at the moment the tabled acts of vandalism …

Closing 6 libraries and I suspect more next year.

Closing school swimming pools

Serious risk to all of the Walsall Music service

Cut to the Debt counselling service at a time when they are needed more than ever.

More cuts of support to the Domestic violence support service ( report due out in early February)

What support will be there post end of March for LINK… the local watchdog checking on our local health service?

What chance to properly repair our roads , especially with a private company Tarmac setting the price?

What effect on the most vulnerable in our society who depend on Walsall Social services for respite for their carers.?

Will SERCO sell off all the failing schools to private companies and form more academies to leave only those under Walsall Council those which are ‘profitable’ to SERCO?

More items to come as the budget cut debate unfolds.



What sort of Borough and Council will we be left with? Not the sort to be proud of or to attract new communities vital to our futures

published by electronic means by Ian Robertson 87 Belvidere Rd walsall WS1 3au tel 01922 634642.

What future our NHS? WIll this follow the Ryanair model?

21st January

Our NHS has been around for over 60 years and has been the subject of many radical changes by successive Governments. Health care is costly however especially in an ageing population and to maintain a high standard. We have been falling behind in some outcomes in for example areas of cancer treatments.

The latest proposals by the Tory/Lib coalition who now wish to tear up the present structure in a change more radical than anything done before to our NHS. More broken promises and some of the small print not visible in the pre election manifestos... for example no mention there that PCTs would go.


Putting 80% of the NHS budget into the hands of doctors has rung a number of alarm bells... there are some GPs who relish the idea and are capable of running what would be a multi million pound business to commission health care for their patients as a group.. Many others are not so good at it, will waste our money, not being good at running a very large health team and just wish to get on with what they do best ... caring for their patients. There are at least two GP groups at the moment gearing up to try and run the service in Walsall and no doubt there will be a patchwork quilt of groups coming forward to run our NHS post 2013 .. However who will be picking up the bill if any of these holders of our health budget get it badly wrong and go bust? The belief of the Tories has always been 'let the market decide' How happy will you be to find that your operation will be done by a hospital bidding to get the business of doing your operation with the money needed by the hospital to keep in business? All our hospitals will become independent foundation trusts. where will be the democratic accountability of all these health organisations which will be spending most of our health care money? How will the standard of care and support be maintained or will this new model become the Ryanair equivalent in health care? You can imagine what could happen where the core cost is kept low with the 'extras' added on later to the bill !

Why tear up the PCTs , why cannot these organisations be the vehicle for delivery of health provision by the GP's? It will cost over £1 billion to wind up the PCTs with redundancies.. all money that is not spent on health care. I fear that our NHS is in danger... I pray that this patient is not suffering from a terminal illness.!

Oldham result gives message ' Come back Labour all is forgiven'

The voters in Oldham have shown on Thursday that the pathway of the Tory Liberal coalition is not for them.
Promises by the Liberal Party broken in joining an alliance with a past sworn enemy is unravelling.
A rise of VAT to 20%, threatened cuts to children's centres and Sure Start, cuts to future job's fund, cuts to police numbers, cuts to education maintenance allowance and tripling of student tuition fees will  hit especially those young people living in disadvantaged communities and is treating the electorate with contempt as we are not getting what we voted for.
Some politicians appear to be prepared to sell their souls to get elected and that will be reflected in what could be a General election in the near future.

Is there anyone listening out there?

For those who missed the 'exciting' 3 hours of entertainment at full council on Monday evening... if you have problems with sleeping do come and practice in the public gallery at such times.


The Notice of motion calling for a fair pay to match our neighbouring Towns in paying for social workers ( we are 30% less than Staffs County Council ) was defeated by the Tory Councillors. While I agree that there are other factors such as conditions, promotion prospects, opportunities for training, schools for their children etc are always important it is the pay that will influence the final decision. we have only recruited one senior social worker in the past 3 years which should tell us something. the offer of the golden hellos of £1500 and the promise of a bonus of £1000 if you stay for three years still puts recruits way down on the pay scales. It costs us a fortune extra to employ up to 40 agency staff to fill in and despite I am sure agency workers trying to cover, this is not as good as having permanent staff. Still we tried but lost.

Another one we lost was protesting at the loss of Educational Maintenance Allowance from last December which has removed support from about 4500 families in Walsall. I suspect that the numbers in wards like Blakenall are far higher than the average of 200 or so per ward. This is a kick in the teeth ot those young people from disadvantaged homes when we should be targeting them especially to encourage them into further education. Only one in a 100 goes for further education in comparison to 17 in 100 from other areas. The young people from wards like Blakenall can achieve as well as those from other wards... they do not have the parental support, self esteem and subsequently the ambition is lost. The removal pf EMA is a backwards step in addressing those inequalities.

News that 6 libraries will close as a result of budget cuts but this Sword of Damocles now hangs over the whole of Walsall and the library service The philistines in the cabinet do not realise that the battle to raise the dreadful level of educational achievement in Walsall is not helped by closing these lifelines to better education. I seem to recall in history those who destroyed libraries coming to a sticky end. Maybe this will happen to this lot.



Like many things that are happening under this hasty cuts regime we will live to regret and find it costs us dear.

Social Workers worth their weight in gold but Walsall pay peanuts

The following notice of motion is down for full Council to debate Monday 10th January
To consider the following motion, notice of which has been duly given by


Councillors Robertson, Burley, Wilkes, Oliver, Chambers, Westley and Cassidy:

"This Council notes with concern the vast sums of money spent on agency social

workers within children's specialist services - just under £3.8m over the last 3

years.

With a substantial reduction in spending in mind, coupled with the need to

provide ever more efficient specialist services to our most vulnerable children

and young people, this council resolves to urgently address this waste of tax

payers money by;

· Agreeing to increase the levels of pay of social workers in Walsall to

match that of our neighbours in the rest of the West Midlands and

Staffordshire as they are currently 30% less that Staffs County Council

and the second lowest in the black country and 

· ensuring that current recruitment and retention processes are thoroughly

reviewed as a matter of urgency to see where they can be improved.
 
I note that we are now trying to redress the balance and for that I am pleased. A sense of fairness … the fact that restocking the shelves of a supermarket can command a higher wage than some very difficult social care jobs carrying a lot of responsibility and any errors potentially very serious.


I do believe that job choice has a Lot of other influences besides money although it is of course very important as bills, mortgages etc have to be paid… but working conditions atmosphere, support by colleagues, team working, access to good schools, health care, leisure facilities, open spaces and other entertainments do have some influence. Support to help in moving and advice etc is also very welcoming to any potential employee. Opportunities for improving oneself , getting more qualifications and training… despite of course the fact that if they do get more on their CV they might start looking around for another higher paid job.. especially if the job structure in an organisation does not allow for suitable promotion.
Hopefully we shall recruit the best possible candidates for this vital part of the work of this Council.. we have not recruited a new senior social worker here in walsall for over 3 years. We have been lucky in having to often have over 40 agency staff at a time covering the gaps that we have not had a serious incident.

Death by a thousand cuts with more to follow.

What effects of cuts to the residents of Walsall?


- national cuts… VAT up to 20% which will affect everyone but proportionally more those on low and middle level incomes. There will be an increase in unemployment and further pressure on unemployment benefit costs.

- Cuts of EMA ( education maintenance allowance) this is an amount up to £30 a week paid to families where there is a 16 year old and family of low income to encourage the 16 year old to stay on at school for further education. There has also been an up to 30% rise in tuition fees which risks future generation of young people who go to university only with a wealthier family background.

- There will be a 3% cut in real terms to the NHS ( after inflation, increase in demands etc taken into account) Primary care trusts will go and 80% of spend will go into hands of local doctors who will buy your NHS care. Some GPs may do this well but experience from the last move to GP fund holding showed a lot of GPs were very bad at handling such a vast budget.

- There will be a cut in the police budget which will mean less police. Exact numbers are being discussed by the Chief constable but I cannot see such a level of cuts being implemented without a marked cut in beat officers.

- Cuts to the grant settlement to Walsall Council amount to 9% or £14M for 2011 budget on top of £10M of recent cuts this year. This will mean the loss of at least 450 Council staff plus the knock on affect on support services funded by the Council and supply services to the Council.. Those who get disability living allowance which has a mobility part to it will be expected to pay this towards transport costs. The levying of a cost of transport that was in a previous year’s budget will also be implemented for all. Care packages and respite care support will be cut to the statutory minimum. There will be much greater dependence on ‘telecare’.. detectors that send signal down telephone line to suggest that for example someone suffering from dementia has left the house and not returned for a while.

- Support for leisure centres and libraries is under threat. Some closures and further reduction in opening hours I am sure will be proposed. Swimming pools attached to schools, I am sure will suffer closures from the current level of 44 to around 6.

- The road safety budget ( education etc to young people about road safety ) has already been cut.

- Walsall are now the only Council using SERCO to deliver their education services… all other councils have not renewed their contract… does that tell us something about value for money? Walsall have signed up to another 12 years of SERCO who provide a wide range of services nationally such as transporting prisoners . I do not believe we are scrutinising their spend properly.

- We already contract out a number of services such as the road maintenance to Tarmac. I believe we pay far too much for their services in comparison to other Councils For example we are taking out a new recycling contract that will save over £1Million in a full year… does that not suggest we have been ripped off before?

- I believe that we have to reduce expenditure, but that there has been and continues to be large amounts of wasted or poor value expenditure, serious overlaps and duplication of services and costs, too little cross boundary cooperation, too little encouragement and support for local businesses to access contracts in the Walsall economy, a real threat to ‘spend a little to save a lot’ schemes which will build up much higher costs in the medium to long term. The cuts will fall more proportionally on the lower and middle earners than on the rich who also have the ability to organise their affairs to reduce payment. Cuts as severe as these could literally cost lives .
 We already have 'meals on wheels' service ending contract and so replaced with a fascinating mix of sandwich bars, local cafes and other sources of meals for the frail and elderly. What many want is that visit from a friendly face  ......mind you if you read the audit report on that firm done by the Council you can see how poor was their accounting reporting and how the Council was being exploited by a bad contract.
We will be looking very carefully at proposals and raise the issues where we can. However we could be cynical and say that all has been decided and it is just a matter of going through the motions... but let us at least try! We owe that to those who are vulnerable and handicapped and often get trampled under foot by those better equiped racing to the trough.