12. 4   Motion regarding Government’s failure to tackle the social care crisis

 

Councillor David Edgar moved and Councillor Danny Hassellseconded the motion as printed in the agenda.

 

Councillor Muhammed Ansar Mustaquim moved, and Councillor Mahbub Alam seconded a friendly amendment to the motion that the following be added to the resolution section of the motion:

 

Mayor to write a joint letter with other agreeable Group Leaders to the responsible Government Minister, highlighting Tower Hamlets’ case.

 

Councillor David Edgar declined to accept this amendment. The amendment was put to the vote and was defeated.

 

Guillotine Motion

 

At this point the meeting had sat for three hours and, with no motion to extend the meeting proposed, the guillotine came into effect. As set out in Procedure Rule 9.2, the matter being debated was concluded as if the motion, ‘That the question be now put’ had been moved and carried. The motion was put to the vote and was agreed.

 

RESOLVED:

 

This council notes:

 

-           That the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services estimates that nationally, between 2010 and 2015, £4.6bn was cut from the adult social care budget.

 

-           The Government’s announcement that it would be introducing a £240m national Adult Social Care Grant to help fund the increasing costs of social care.

 

-           That the £240m is nowhere near what is needed to properly resolve the social care crisis.

 

-           The £240m grant is not made up of new money; it is funded by top slicing the New Homes Bonus already given to councils. It is estimated that as a result a third of councils will actually lose money overall as a result.

 

-           The NHB top slice means that Tower Hamlets will lose out on £4.8m of NHB in 2017/18 in order to fund the new adult social care grant but will only receive £1.5m in grant.

 

-           This means Tower Hamlets will actually be £3.3m worse off in 2017/18 as a result of the “extra” funding for social care announced in December. This is the biggest reduction in funding in the country.

 

-           The £3.3m reduction in funding comes on top of £58m savings the council already has to make over the next three years as a result of other government cuts to our budget.

 

-           Government also allowed councils to raise council tax by up to 3% in order to provide additional funding for social care.

 

This Council believes:

 

-           With an aging and growing population the Government should be looking for long term solutions to the social care crisis, not just moving money around and pretending it is new.

 

-           Ministers need to do far more to meet the funding gap, but moving and relabeling pots of money, which would have gone to councils anyway, as new does nothing to achieve this. It just creates perverse situations where the fastest growing – and one of the most deprived – boroughs in the country actually loses out.

 

-           By giving local authorities little choice but to raise council tax in order to fund social care, the Government is passing the buck and getting local authorities to do its work for it.

 

-           Caring for our vulnerable and older citizens shouldn’t be a political football. The government should be working cross-party to find long-term solutions to this care crisis.

 

This Council resolves:

 

-           To call on the Government to listen to the councils and social care professionals and to properly fund the adult social care system.

 

12. 9   Motion regarding Island Health Trust

 

Councillor Dave Chestertonmoved and CouncillorCandida Ronald seconded the motion as printed in the agenda.

 

Councillor Peter Golds moved, and Councillor Chris Chapman seconded a friendly amendment to the motion as set out below:

 

Delete all after item 7 and insert:

 

8.         There are concerns across the Isle of Dogs regarding the management of the IHT

 

9.         These concerns need to be investigated

 

The Council believes that:

 

1.            The Island Health Trust are considered to be local assets and should be considered as such

 

2.            All funds held by the IHT are considered as public assets

 

3.            To restore confidence locally trustees should be local with ties to the diverse community of the Isle of Dogs

 

The Council resolves to:

 

Refer the motion to the legal and adults services to establish the current situation and to bring forward recommendations to restore local accountable to this valuable asset

 

Councillor Dave Chesterton and Councillor Candida Ronald indicated that they accepted sentences 1-3 and 9 of the amendment and the proposed resolution and altered their motion accordingly.

 

Mayor John Biggs proposed an amendment to the above resolution to state:

 

That the Mayor and the Council’s Senior Management Team in consultation with local Councillors and the Lead Members responsible for health explore the issues and carry out an investigation into the matters.

 

Councillor Dave Chesterton and Councillor Candida Ronald indicated that they accepted this further amendment and amended their motion accordingly.

 

Following debate, the motion as amended was put to the vote and was unanimously agreed.

 

RESOLVED:

 

The Council notes;

 

1.         The Island Health Trust is the ‘Landlord’ for the Island Health Centre, located alongside the ASDA store on East Ferry Road, Isle of Dogs;

 

2.         The Island Health Centre came about through a campaign by local people in the 1980s;

 

3.         The Island Health Centre has been funded through a mixture of loan finance and grants from the London Docklands Development Corporation and Tower Hamlets Council;

 

4.         The Island Health Trust’s (Landlord’s) main sources of income are the rent paid by the NHS and service charges paid by the Doctors. From this, the Landlord has accumulated a surplus of some £1.3m;

 

5.         In spite of holding these substantial reserves the Landlord is charging the Practice an unaffordable service charge, equivalent to the salaries of two doctors. The Practice has now been forced to vacate the first floor of the Health Centre because it can’t afford these charges. The Schools’ Psychiatric Service has also been forced to move out and the Massage Therapy curtailed because of the high costs, more services are likely to follow;

 

6.         For the first 25 years of its life the Island Health Trust (Landlord) was managed by local Trustees. Any surplus generated was used to fund local health initiatives through a modest grants programme;

 

7.         This changed on 1 April 2016 when the Chair, Suzanne Goodband, appointed a new board entirely made up of people with no local connection: Leonie Hirst, Christian Woodhead, Barak Maoz and Ruth Brannvall (a resident of Sweden);

 

8.         The Trust has ambitions to demolish the Island Health Centre and exploit this valuable site. They are seeking the Practice’s consent to vacate the Centre to unidentified temporary accommodation to facilitate this development.

 

9.         Serious allegations have been made by a former Trustee relating to governance and financial management of the Trust; including Trustee personal pecuniary advantage. These have been passed by the Mayor to the Charity Commissioners for investigation.

 

10.       These concerns needed to be investigated.

 

The Council Believes;

 

1.         The Island Health Centre and the land upon which it stands are public assets;

 

2.         The £1.3m reserves held by the Island Health Trust are also a public asset;

 

3.         The Island Health Trust must be run by local trustees, and the £1.3m invested to support patients of this Practice and health services for local people;

 

4.         Health services locally are being badly damaged by the Trustees of the Island Health Trust;

 

5.         The attempt by the Trustees to ‘asset strip’ the Island Health Centre is abhorrent;

 

6.            The Island Health Trust are considered to be local assets and should be considered as such;

 

7.            All funds held by the IHT are considered as public assets;

 

8.            To restore confidence locally trustees should be local with ties to the diverse community of the Isle of Dogs;

 

 

The Council Resolves to;

 

1.         To pursue with the Charity Commissioners the serious allegations made by a former Trustee;

 

2.         To press the Island Health Trust to bring the Trust back under governance by local people for the benefit of local people;

 

3.         To protect the patients of the Island Health Centre from the damage being done to local health services by the Trustees of the Island Health Trust.

 

4.            That the Mayor and the Council’s Senior Management Team in consultation with local Councillors and the Lead Members responsible for health explore the issues and carry out an investigation into the matters.

 

 

Motions 12.1 – 12.3, 12.5-8 and 12.10 were not debated due to lack of time.