Minutes: SACC Regular Meeting.
The Windmill, Southport
Monday 14/3/11
8pm
1. Minutes from the last regular meeting and meeting with Ms Carney approved with some additions (on the blog). From the money raised on the night of the MC meeting, £80 paid the balance, £20 deposit was paid by Kat leaving £57 to be shared by SWACA and Parenting 2000.
2. Matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting:
FOI requests: An FoI has been put in to ask for a list of budget cuts but has not been responded to even though it has gone past the 20 days. The request has now gone to an internal review. We need this info for a possible judicial review of the budget.
The Windmill, Southport
Monday 14/3/11
8pm
1. Minutes from the last regular meeting and meeting with Ms Carney approved with some additions (on the blog). From the money raised on the night of the MC meeting, £80 paid the balance, £20 deposit was paid by Kat leaving £57 to be shared by SWACA and Parenting 2000.
2. Matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting:
FOI requests: An FoI has been put in to ask for a list of budget cuts but has not been responded to even though it has gone past the 20 days. The request has now gone to an internal review. We need this info for a possible judicial review of the budget.
Another FoI has been put in regarding who the heads of department are.
Petitions FoI: Nina spoke with Steve Pearce on the phone and he explained why the rules regarding petitions had recently changed. Nina will contact him again through WhatDoTheyKnow to put it in writing for the record what was said. Also ask whether the petition rules apply to petitions to all levels of the council – full council, cabinet and committees. Stuart said next step could be writing to Information Commission if FoIs not replied to.
John has also put in an FoI with the NHS Sefton Director of Public Health.
3. The meetings with Council Leaders and Margaret Carney.
Feedback, what went well, what could be done better: Edit questions, more concise, criticism about letting people ask questions who weren’t there (Kat said because she wanted all to have a voice even if they were not for whatever reason able to attend eg through being housebound). Move the speakers on quicker to get through more questions. The meetings were chaired well by Kat. Stuart asked whether it was a good idea to offer the questions in advance – Kat said she didn’t want it to come across as if we were trying to trip them up, also didn’t want them to be able to say they didn’t have the info to hand.
3. The meetings with Council Leaders and Margaret Carney.
Feedback, what went well, what could be done better: Edit questions, more concise, criticism about letting people ask questions who weren’t there (Kat said because she wanted all to have a voice even if they were not for whatever reason able to attend eg through being housebound). Move the speakers on quicker to get through more questions. The meetings were chaired well by Kat. Stuart asked whether it was a good idea to offer the questions in advance – Kat said she didn’t want it to come across as if we were trying to trip them up, also didn’t want them to be able to say they didn’t have the info to hand.
4. Plan going forward for a meeting with Sefton MPs – John Pugh, Bill Esterson and Joe Benton. Bill Esterson has said he will come to a meeting, got to pin him down to a day. Nina to follow up request with Joe Benton, Gemma will speak to John Pugh to try to get them to confirm a day.
Liz (Ford) will try to make contact with Socialist Health Association who have a meeting on April 14 at St Luke’s Church hall - see the useful dates section of the blog for information.
5. Judicial review of the budget, we are going to press ahead with investigating calling for one and collating information with this in mind.
As far as we are aware there have been no public consultations and allegedly "inadequate" (according to Peter Dowd) impact assessments. Celia and Kat investigating this with solicitors, Kat’s tutor and the Public Law Project. Kat doesn’t feel able to take this massive project on. No one else was keen to take it on either so it was decided that we may need to just focus on one or two aspects of the budget rather than try to collate info on every single cut. It has to be a cut affecting a protected group, and someone in that group must be eligible for legal aid. We can get help from the Public Law Project. A JR has been successful in London against all London borough councils with regard to cuts to grants to the voluntary sector. We only have three months in which to launch a JR. We need to exhaust all UK legal avenues before going to Europe (where there may be more success). They have been partly successful in Wirral in stopping closure of care homes while a JR goes through. Jackie Canning at Wirral Carers may be able to help with that. Can trade unions help with financial support for JR? Nina will email Glen Williams at UNISON and Gemma will try Unite.
Does SACC have class action power? No, would need to identify people affected. Can’t go straight at central government: Fawcett Society tried and were advised although they had a case there was no recompense.
There needs to be a FoI about library and children’s centre provision – Nina will chase up David McCullough. Government guidance say there should be one children’s centre per 1,000 children – sefton has 15,000 children (Census 2001). Have the impact assessment been done? Can they be viewed? Not at the moment. Impact assessment toothless? They only need to show “due regard” to protected groups. European Convention on Human Rights more stringent than UK Human Rights Act. So age, gender, disability need to be looked at, we need to collect the info. John pointed out that they can do a consultation and ignore the results eg charges for travel rising from £3 to £12 a day (more info at agenda item no.8 at the last health and social care meeting. (consultation on charges for non-residential services).
Children’s centre funding comes from Early Intervention Grant, as does youth clubs. 12.9% cut in Sefton. But £900,000 has been put into the Children’s Centre budget from reserves for this year and they are trying to save that before the review.
But are any of these good for a JR? Youth centres has lots of public support from all age groups. School uniform grant cut affects 9,000 across the borough.
With Children’s centres there is legislation that hasn’t been observed.
A meeting will take place at Kat’s house on Monday 21 March at 8pm (19 Gordon St) to further investigate JR.
6. SACC Committee Roles and reaching out.
Where are we up to with filling roles and setting up committees?
Difficult to find enough people to directly mirror the council Cabinet – so a small committee instead. Meet at Kat’s house two weeks before regular SACC meeting (Mon 28 Mar).
Possibility of encouraging other Sefton anti-cuts groups. Ainsdale library “friends” can we encourage other “friends” groups not just for libraries?
Kat’s contact at Democracy Club may be interested in setting up a Maghull anti-cuts group. Can we contact Birkdale, Churchtown libraries to see if they have a ‘friends’ group and if not can reach out to people to encourage them to set them up?
7. Report back about NHS Consultation meeting.
From those of us who attended. What is happening with NHS, the future of services in Southport and Sefton.
7. Report back about NHS Consultation meeting.
From those of us who attended. What is happening with NHS, the future of services in Southport and Sefton.
Good blog post by Kat. Worries that some services such as geriatric care will not be profitable enough to provide. Also a worry that there will be big fines for bed blocking, readmission rates and dignity provision. Also should there be an IT system where Social Services can access medical records? And if you really can provide more for less why isn’t it already being done? A doctor has suggested a paperwork strike. John Pugh is leading the Lib Dem opposition to the reforms – we need to lobby him, through the Parliament Uk website and at his constituency office.
8. Any other business.
Southport March For The Alternative, March 26. Putting on coach to go to London - £800, UNISON are sending a coach from Southport, 2 from Bootle, there may be some spaces left. For those not able to travel to London there should be a Southport march. For those wanting to go to London we should help arrange transport.
8. Any other business.
Southport March For The Alternative, March 26. Putting on coach to go to London - £800, UNISON are sending a coach from Southport, 2 from Bootle, there may be some spaces left. For those not able to travel to London there should be a Southport march. For those wanting to go to London we should help arrange transport.
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