Wirral Leaks Halloween Sequel : The Lamentable

Our thanks go to the Wirral Leaks reader who sent us this delightful Halloween voodoo dolly and posed the question : Let’s hope the upcoming General Election campaign is ‘stress-free’ for a certain revered and venerated local MP. Lord knows there are many local councillors who have relied on his peculiar voodoo to ‘watchover’ them over the years…” – Whoever could they mean?

As in all the best Halloween horror movies we’ve decided to resurrect Wirral Leaks from the dead to wreak havoc among Wirral’s political elite before we are run out of town by a torch-bearing angry lynch mob.

However before we go down in flames in our final act of self-immolation we need to let you know that, fear not, we’ve not been idle . Much of our time has been spent putting the finishing touches to our grand denouement and our last hurrah/despairing cry which will be a series of stories under the collective banner ‘The Scum That Run Wirral’

Yes, yes we know – we’re as  ‘poisonous’, ‘insulting’ , ‘mischievous’, and ‘caustic’ as ever. But at least we’re consistent and not afflicted with the modern day curse of selective snowflakery. Let’s face it we’d never get a job with the Local Government Association (LGA) who could run masterclasses in mealymouthness.

The latest example can be found in a report which has just been published or rather buried deep on the Wirral Council website :

The full report can be read here Planning Improvement Peer Challenge.

Many of the issues it reports will be familiar to readers of Wirral Leaks however we’d be using more pithy and earthier words than ‘lamentable’ (borrowed from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) to describe Wirral Council’s notoriously appalling Planning Department and the lack of political will, vision or leadership which has left Wirral without a Local Plan for nearly two decades . Read this assessment and weep:

And there’s more where this came from

And although it must be said that we are somewhat more discordant and desafinado how’s this for singing our song?

Meanwhile whilst we know that many of those on Wirral (and beyond) who have power or who seek power have seen us as the ‘darkside’ conversely we think we’ve actually been shining a light on the ‘darkside’ and we will continue to do so until ‘the dying of the light’…

 

 

Defend Our NHS : An invitation to an important meeting TODAY

Prior to our final tour of the highways (!) and byways of Wirral political life we have an important message from our friends at Defend Our NHS:

Dear friends of the NHS

We urge supporters who are patients of Wirral GPs to respond to the email address in the letter below* and to attend this vital meeting. Please try to arrive at around 5:30pm to join in leafleting.

Wednesday 30th October 2019 at 6:00pm at Wallasey Town Hall.

I would be appreciative if you could confirm your attendance with my colleague Alex Davidson, Scrutiny Officer on 0151 691 8381 or alternatively, by email to* alexandradavidson@wirral.gov.uk. If you would like to discuss this in more detail, or require further information, Alex will be happy to assist.

Now please read on.

The letter (from Wirral councillor Moira McLaughlin, who is chair of the Adult Care and Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee) has gone to local GP patient participation groups.

The original text is in italics and we have added some comments.

Wirral Council’s Adult Care and Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee is responsible for reviewing and scrutinising the commissioning, management and performance of health and social care services on Wirral.

[We have criticised the behaviour of this committee and have written to all Wirral councillors to say so. You will remember that in December last year 45,000 residents said ‘no’ to closures or reductions in walk-in services. This is also the declared policy of the Labour Party nationally AND of Wirral Council – yet a majority of councillors chose to support the plans of the clinical commissioning group.]

Later this month, the Committee are holding a workshop for Elected Members to consider Wirral Health and Care Commissioning’s future plans for integrated health and social care services on Wirral.

[We oppose the whole notion of ‘integrated care’ as currently designed. As we have said repeatedly over many years it is all part of the grand plan to slash, trash and privatise the NHS. It is a disgrace that councillors – including from a party which has set its face against these changes – should go along with them.]

As you may be aware, Wirral CCG and Wirral Council have pooled funds and resources in order to provide a seamless provision of care for those requiring intermediate care and those with complex disabilities that require packages of care from both health and social care every day.

[We oppose pooled budgets – the subsidising of private social care from the public NHS purse. Although councillors will argue that they had no choice except to go along with it, they did. They were kept in the dark about a report from PWC which said, “The introduction of an integrated commissioner with a single pool of funds will facilitate the introduction of a wider Accountable Care System / Accountable Care Organisation across the Wirral. Without the ability for Commissioners to ultimately let a single contract for services through the ICH, the ability to move to an ACS would be impaired due to complexity which multiple contracts, budgets and accountabilities would bring.” In other words they supported a change to something they had vowed to oppose.**]

For this reason, I would like to invite a representative(s) from your patient participation group to attend this workshop to provide a brief statement on patient experiences of health and social care services, and to take part in further discussion with Members.

The workshop will be held on Wednesday 30th October 2019 at 6.00pm at Wallasey Town Hall.

I would be appreciative if you could confirm your attendance with my colleague Alex Davidson, Scrutiny Officer on 0151 691 8381 or alternatively, by email to* alexandradavidson@wirral.gov.uk . If you would like to discuss this in more detail, or require further information, Alex will be happy to assist.

Please attend and give the councillors YOUR patient experience.

More background at http://999callfornhs.org.uk/

Best wishes on behalf of Defend Our NHS

 

** PWC (who were paid £40k for their work) also noted the following. The report was kept SECRET from councillors who were supposed to be scrutinising the changes. It was full of bomb shells.

Both the Council and the CCG (together ‘the Commissioners’) would like to extend their current pooled budget arrangements to incorporate the majority of the total health and social care funding within the health economy. The services that fall under the scope of these new pooled arrangements will be formally commissioned by the Integrated Commissioning Hub (ICH)

The ICH would begin with a financial deficit, with funding insufficient to meet the required expenditure, prior to any additional budget pressures being experienced from 2018/19 onwards.

Additional contingency/deficit funding would be required to be repaid in 2018/19.

Savings plans are still under discussion with community trust to identify and deliver further savings

Pooled budget is underfunded, likely to result in a deficit for the ICH.

Without significant intervention cumulative deficit likely to increase annually as prior-year demand is unmet.