I wish to express my concern at the clear rift that is emerging between our government’s guidance on lockdown – especially as it gradually eases – and the strangely defensive attitude that senior members of the government are very publicly taking to Mr Dominic Cummings’ breach of this same guidance.
Surely, in a case of pandemic and lockdown, we really are “all in this together”.
As a shielded carer, I have not been able to see my significantly disabled daughter for eight whole weeks. (Since then I have seen her briefly, while masked). My anxiety has been extreme.
My husband, whose mother is in a care home suffering from vascular dementia, has had the triple whammy of only being able to contact her by phone for the whole of the same two months, knowing that she is lonely because his multiple daily calls do not register with her, and fearing for her safety within the home. His anxiety has also been extreme.
However we have both obeyed the governmental rules created (in part) by Mr Cummings because we believe in a common good and are prepared to play our part.
We are one family amongst thousands that you represent. There must be thousands of similar stories in Suffolk Coastal.
Mr Cummings’ behaviour and excuses – but more particularly, the clear desire of many in the government to believe and excuse him, diminishes the sacrifices of us all.
I feel that his attitude makes a mockery of the massive effort that this pandemic requires from the people of Britain. Please could you tell me whether we really are “all in this together,” or whether there are exceptions?
Virtual SCC meetings SCC is now holding some meetings virtually – including school transport panel appeals. Public meetings, or public sections of meetings can still be attended by members of the public. The link to the virtual meeting will be included on the agenda for the meeting. I have already sat on one virtual appeal panel.
If meetings are cancelled, the Chief Executive uses her emergency powers to make any necessary decisions on behalf of the Cabinet/Council through the delegated decision-making process. Details of any decisions made will be published on the SCC website.
Supply of PPE In light of increasing concerns about care home transmission/ infection, it is worth noting that SCC is supplying emergency PPE to primary care and other service providers who are unable or struggling to source their own supplies. This includes:
Adult residential and domiciliary care: care homes, personal assistants or homecare
Children’s Homes
GP surgeries
Secure Children’s Homes
Residential Special Schools
Court
Funeral Services
Local Authority: childrens social care, adult social care or healthy child services
Mental Health community/adult social workers
Hospices and Palliative Care
Primary Care
Pharmacists
Emergency Dentists
I have been assured by the director of Adult and Community Services that where taxi drivers are undertaking hospital transfers, they can also apply for PPE from the above source.
Donation of EU-compliant masks to Woodbridge from Xi’anGift of PPE from Xi’an, China I was able to hand a gift of EU-compliant medical masks to Deben View as a gift from concerned friends in China.
Covid Funding from Government Suffolk County Council has received £34.7m from the government to help with the council’s coronavirus response.
However, the council is currently forecasting that the financial impact of the crisis will be at least £56m (due to both extra expenditure and lost income) by the end of March 2021, and so more support from the government will be needed.
Finally, my group is having regular q&a sessions with the heads of highways, children’s services, adult services and public health. If you have anything you want to ask, I am happy to pass on your questions and ensure they get answered.
Street closures to protect walkers/cyclists exercising outdoors My LDGI group are encouraging Suffolk County Council to close roads that are used by residents to get their daily exercise, to ensure that walkers/cyclists can exercise safely and maintain social distancing.
The county council have indicated that they are willing to consider these closures and have already closed Ipswich Waterfront to through-traffic for 3 weeks.
If you have suggestions for roads that could benefit from a temporary closure, please let me know and I will pass it on to the Cabinet Member, along with suggestions for measures to encourage cycling and walking , especially as the Government has just announced emergency funding for this.
I have also raised my concerns about residents unilaterally deciding to block public Rights of Way, citing Covid as an excuse. At Martlesham Creek, the residents alongside PROW13 have coned off the Right of Way and are denying walkers access, because they are ‘self-isolating.’
Public rights of way are paths which the public have a legal protected right to use, and the County Council a legal duty to protect. They provide a healthy, safe and sustainable way to access the countryside and other local services. I have reported this to the County Council as one of several local attempts to prevent local walkers from enjoying legitimate and government sanctioned exercise.
Review of Suffolk ‘s County Council boundaries delayed The Boundary Commission has announced that it will be delaying its review of Suffolk County Council’s electoral arrangements and division boundaries. The Commission was due to publish its draft recommendations and consult on them in May-July 2020, with the intention of implementing the new electoral arrangements (including , we believe, a reduction in councillor numbers) at the 2021 local elections.
Given the delay to the consultation on draft recommendations, the new arrangements will now not be implemented until the 2025 elections. Given the situation we are currently in – and the uncertainty as to how or when it will end – to consider any current reduction in local representation would seem a very poor idea).
Cost of post-16 Home to School transport increases by £90 Plans to increase the price of post-16 school transport were approved by the Chief Executive using delegated decision-making powers, because the Cabinet was unable to meet.
The price of mainstream post-16 school transport has been increased by £90, whilst the price of post-16 transport for SEND students has increased by £30. This is despite the fact that a consultation on the proposed increase indicated that 75% of parents who responded felt that the increase would have an adverse impact on them.
Essentially, this is despite the fact that there is now a de facto SSLA (statutory school leaving age) of 18 as the law now requires all young people in England to continue in education or training until at least their 18th birthday. This places a particularly unfair financial burden on low-income families, most particularly in rural areas.
County claims that if families are concerned about their ability to pay for school transport, they can apply for the 16-19 Bursary Fund which is managed by post-16 provisions and may be able to support eligible disadvantaged young people by up to £1,200.. It is a limited budgett.
Increase in social worker pay Suffolk County Council has (finally) agreed to increase the pay of children’s social workers to match the remuneration offered by neighbouring councils, in order to attract and retain skilled social workers in Suffolk. It is estimated that this pay increase will cost £1.4m and will be funded from council reserves. I am pleased that the council has taken this step, because my group proposed this exact policy as part of our budget amendment in February.
Despite the Covid pandemic ,it seems that Suffolk’s family carers remain officially hidden, and officially unsupported. In this county – as in this country – this is a disgrace.
A recent SCC briefing on the subject merely said: “One of the challenges at this time is helping carers to explore the options for having a care ‘back-up’ or contingency plan, should circumstances change and alternative care be necessary for the cared for adult. While not new to discussions with carers, the prospect of carers knowing people in their network, or community is especially important during a pandemic of this sort. “ In other words: “Hop to it, Cinderella! Go find your replacement!”
Disingenuously, this wording suggests that a full-time unpaid family carer has made a positive career decision and is actually in the position to form a strong support network within their community and to leverage it to the unlimited free care cover that the state has expected from them. I cannot tell you how angry this makes me.
So, who will elect to do this massive amount of care unpaid? How many senior members of county or country administration will come forward and publicly commit to taking over the unpaid, unacknowledged 24/7 care of an anonymous local resident with significant needs? Don’t all shout at once, eh?
Come off it! We all know it is not a realistic plan for the county ( or indeed the country) to expect unpaid carers to source other replacement unpaid carers to cover their own isolation/ sickness/death from Covid19 on top of everything else they do.To articulate this expectation is not only unrealistic, it is inappropriate in the extreme.
At the best it can only put extra stress on already over-stressed individuals. At the worst it might make them lose all hope. How will – how can – a sole carer looking after eg a spinally complicated quadriplegic do this? Or the elderly, physically frail, carer of a partner with dementia? Or the unacknowledged child carer of a troubled adult?
We should be deeply disturbed that Suffolk’s message is that if you are a lone and unsupported carer, looking after somebody who is vulnerable because the state is not coming forward to assist, the county merely reiterates that it is this carer’s responsibility to go out and find someone else to look after (for free) the person they care for (for love and duty).
This briefing is a distancing manoeuvre rather than practical help in a pandemic. More, it is a gross abrogation of moral responsibility by authorities elected to safeguard our society.
Worryingly, Suffolk’s Plan B seems to be to tell concerned councillors “If you are worried about an individual, do report them to Home But Not Alone.”
But what about all those who are under the radar? I am not concerned about ‘an individual’. If I know about ‘an individual’ it is possible to provide support. I am worried about all those other individuals – the sole carer of a spinally complicated quadriplegic, say, the elderly, physically frail, carer of a partner with dementia, the unacknowledged child carer of a troubled adult- that we simply do not know – the ones who are home alone.
CarersUK estimates there were 8.8million unpaid carers in the UK in 2019: 13% of the population. That’s approx 100,000 Suffolk carers (possibly more as Suffolk has an older population than the country as a whole). Suffolk Family Carers confirm they only have 14,000 of these carers on their books – and this includes people like me, whose maximum caring responsibilities are currently reduced.
The state has no official method of identifying family carers beyond whether they claim Carers Allowance or not. But many carers are not eligible (students, pensioners, people earning more than £120 per week, children ,etc). Within the unidentified category are many of the most vulnerable: lone parents of disabled children; hidden child carers of adults with poor physical or mental health or addiction issues; and older persons looking after older partners/spouses, both with poor health – and all of these caring 24/7. Such carers have increasingly frail support networks, particularly vulnerable to breakdown at this time. Many are living lives of quiet desperation.
In my own 20 years’ experience as 24/7 unpaid family carer, no elected body, either local or national, has wished to challenge or address these statistics because it leaves them obliged to recognise the magnitude of the underlying problem. (And deal with it. )They edge away like a cat that has inadvertently put its paw near something strong-smelling.
SO canwe do anything? I believe we can! Suffolk – at county, district, ccg and other levels, has various lists which would allow an overarching interest (should one exist!) to piece together a patchwork index of vulnerable persons. No, not the 1.5 million shielded people – of whom I am one. We may be vulnerable to covid, but often far from vulnerable financially or societally. The real vulnerable people. I urge our county – as I urge our country – to go further and ask each individual parish to start at once to try and identify their f local hidden carers- house by house, street by street – and report back. We could ask the media to get involved and make this a whole-county initiative. Better, a whole country one.
Many family carers are invisible behind closed doors. We must identify them, because otherwise, while our society is under its current great stress , they can literally be dying behind closed doors, unsupported.
Caroline Page, LibDem County Councillor for Woodbridge
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Public rights of way are paths which the public have a legal protected right to use, and the County Council a legal duty to protect. They provide a healthy, safe and sustainable way to access the countryside and other local services. I have reported this to the County Council as one of several local attempts to prevent local walkers from enjoying legitimate and government sanctioned exercise.
Despite the Covid pandemic ,it seems that Suffolk’s family carers remain officially hidden, and officially unsupported. In this county – as in this country – this is a disgrace.