Social care direct payments changes in York

City of York Council’s Cabinet will consider plans for how customers paying for adult social care will be charged under the new Care Act 2014 legislation at a meeting later this month (16 December).Social care

The Care Act is the biggest change to how social care is delivered for over 60 years, and will lead to significant changes for the council, partner organisations and providers (including the voluntary sector), service users and carers. The changes will be implemented in two phases – April 2015 and April 2016.

The Care Act brings together best practice around personalisation and makes people’s rights to direct payments and a personal budget statutory, provisions that are already available in most local authorities, including York.

Some important changes in Phase 1 of the Act include;

  • · A national minimum eligibility criteria for service users and carers.
  • · The right to an assessment, support plan and personal budget regardless of personal financial circumstances.
  • · Carers are placed on an equal footing with those for whom they care for and can access an assessment against the eligibility criteria to identify what needs the person may have and what outcomes they are looking to achieve. The purpose of the assessment will support the determination of whether needs are eligible for care and support from the local authority.

Important changes in Phase 2 from April 2016 include-
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Future of York Guildhall

The future of the Guildhall and nearby buildings was last discussed in July 2013.

In a controversial decision the Labour Cabinet decided to allocate £400,000 towards developing a business case to create a “Digital Media Centre” on land to the side of the old Guildhall building.

The report at the time relied heavily on plans to get Lottery funding for the project. Such funding has never materialised and now a Council report to be considered next week reveals the costs and obstacles to the plans.

Proposed layout click for floor plan details

Proposed layout click for floor plan details

The Council has published details of how a new Guildhall might be reconfigured (right).

Apart from the small matter of hijacking the historic public building for use by a special interest group, an additional floor could be added to the south annex to form a restaurant and bar.

Just what that part of York doesn’t need!

There are no guarantees of continued casual access to the Guildhall which is an important part of the City’s heritage and tourist offer.

However it is the “business case” which will raise most eyebrows.

There isn’t one!

As previously reported, the council is being recommended to invest £9.2 million in the development. The capital costs break down like this:

Capital costs. click to enlarge

Capital costs. click to enlarge

Although the Council claims that £4.6 million could be repaid from rental income, no projected revenue budget has been provided.

There is no indication of the potential rental prices and no anchor tenants have been identified.

The complex wouldn’t even open until 2018.

All in all, the way that this has developed looks very similar to the muddled thinking that linked – in Council official’s minds – the need to lose the costs of running swimming pools by aggregating them into the Community Stadium contract.

The result was 2 years of delays, while a £12 million fully funded plan for a stadium ballooned into a £38 million – high risk – mega scheme, producing an additional £8 million bill for taxpayers.

York simply can’t afford this reckless approach to its economy or to the prioritisation of its limited resources.

The scheme should be scrapped before good money joins the hundreds of thousands of pounds already wasted.

Instead the Council should look to sell on the non listed parts of the site to the private sector and negotiate a zero risk option for taxpayers.

That might involve some provision for digital arts but it might also mean residential units in what is a prime site or failing that some retail/hotel use (or a combination of all of these).

The resultant capital receipt could then be used to maintain the Guildhall Listed buildings to a good standard, to ensure its continuing role as the civic centre of the City and provide a fulcrum point valued by all residents not just the techno elite.

York Council set to increase charges by 3 times inflation rate from Jan 1st

Labour have published a list of the increases in charges that they intend to make from the end of the month.

Bulky waste removal charges increase to £40.

Bulky waste removal charges increase to £40.

Most are around 5% (compared to the current inflation rate of 1.3%)

But there are some huge increases included.

The Burton Stone Community Centre hire charges are set to increase by 25% (main Hall). There will be a suspicion that this increase is a further attempt to drive out users who have already petitioned against the Councils plans for the centre.

Bulky household waste collection charges will get a 9% hike. It will cost £40 to get rid of up to 10 bulky items. Again this may be connected with Labours plans to charge for green bin emptying and to reduce the frequency of bin collections.

A full list can be seen by clicking here. No consultations on the proposals have taken place and the Council’s papers don’t include any indication of the number of users which each service has.

The council claims that the price increase will raise additional income of £146k in 2015/16. This is mainly from Bereavement Services (£88k) and Registrars (£25k).

Labour will consider further increases in prices in January when car parking, care services and planning charges will be amongst those under consideration.

Increased charges. Click for full list

Increased charges. Click for full list

“Spend, spend, spend”

The election of a new Leader doesn’t seem to have brought much realism to the York Council Labour Group.

True new Leader Williams is sacking 2 members of the Cabinet – which will operate with 6 members in future – in a gesture towards financial prudence. At the same time he is trying to “bounce” residents and opposition Councillors into accepting a £9.2 million scheme aimed at providing new offices, a riverside walkway and a restaurant on a site adjacent to the Guildhall site.

Williams slipped out the announcement to the local newspaper 24 hours before the agenda documents for a hastily convened special Cabinet meeting (scheduled to take place on 16th December) are due to be published.

York Guildhall

York Guildhall

It means that residents can’t even view the business case for the project at the moment.

…and there will be minimal time for consultation before the Cabinet signs off £500,000 in expenditure on design work for what it describes as a “digital media centre”.

We’ll reserve comment on the project until the full business case has been published, but if it is as lacking in detail as similar proposals – to invest £8 million in replacing the Waterworld swimming pool and £10 million on a bridge into the York central site – then we will know that the new Council is as financially imprudent, as the Alexander regime was reckless.

York Taxpayers – and their children – could be paying over £2 million a year just servicing the debts on these “vanity” projects.

£30,000 to do a job part time?

Meanwhile the new Labour Leader is likely to be asked to make clear his intentions about how much time he could be expected to spend on York Council work if he were to become the its Leader on Thursday.

A full time £30,000 a year salary has been attached to the post since local government reorganisation in 1997.

The expectation is that the Council Leader will be putting in around 50 hours of work each week,

Some of the holders of the post have worked longer hours. ……but Cllr Williams has, so far, declined to confirm that he will be giving up his (day) job with Yorkshire Water.

Failure to do so would be to short change York Council taxpayers (or Yorkshire Water customers).

So he needs to make his intentions clear before Councillors are ask to endorse his nomination.

Big Community Energy Switch sign up

City of York Council is once again inviting residents to sign up to the Big Community Energy Switch, which could help them save on average £169 on their gas and electricity bills.

The sessions will take place in various locations throughout the city during December and January. Residents who would like to find out more about switching are asked to bring a fuel bill along with them.

The council and iChoosr held their first scheme between December 2013 and February 2014. A total of 751 York residents signed up, along with 36,000 people across the UK. Average annual savings for those York residents who switched was £169!

Drop-in sessions where people can register with the help of council staff are taking place on:

Friday 12 December 2014

Tang Hall Community Centre, Fifth Avenue

1.30pm – 4.30pm

Monday 15 January 2014

The Gateway Centre, Acomb

 10am – 2pm

Every Monday in January 2015

City of York Council, West Offices, Station Rise

10am – 1pm

Monday 23 January 2015

Tang Hall Community Centre, Fifth Avenue

1.30pm – 4.30pm

Supported by York’s Citizens Advice Bureau and Age UK York – the Save Money by Switching Energy campaign launched in December 2013. The scheme enables York residents to register for the assisted scheme through these four easy steps that can result in them being offered potentially cheaper alternative tariffs to consider switching to.

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Christmas fun…and money advice

No-money-clipart

City of York Council’s Family Information Service (FIS), Explore York Libraries and Archives Mutual Ltd and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau will be hosting a morning of fun crafts and information on Wednesday 10 December between 9am and 12noon in the reception foyer at West Offices.

There’ll be a host of crafts for little ones (and not so little ones) to get stuck into, including making Christmas decorations, colouring in Frozen characters and decorating paper Christmas trees. Explore York Libraries will also be on hand to provide information about the discounts available through York Cards and representatives from York CAB will be available to help with information on sensible festive spending.

The CAB’s top ten tips to avoid a Christmas Debt Hangover are:
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Footpath and highways resurfaicng programme announced

The York Council has published it initial programme of resurfacing works for the forthcoming financial year.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The carriageway programme can be seen by clicking here The footpath programme can be viewed here

Alternatively click on the graphic right to see a ward by ward analysis.

Not a lot of work is scheduled for the west of the city although the bulk of the programme will not be revealed until the Council has completed its budget for next year in February. The current £2 million programme would normally be supplemented by another £4 million worth of schemes when the dust has settled.

Nevertheless there are some worrying omissions.

 In the Dringhouses ward only a small footpath resurfacing scheme in Turnmire Road is included.

New energy deal offered to York communities

York residents and community groups are being urged to bid for a share of the £10m Urban Community Energy Fund.

The fund provides grants and loans to support urban communities, like York, to develop renewable energy projects.

generator

Grants of up to £20,000 are available to help develop ideas into projects. The fund also will provide loans of up to £130,000 to develop projects through to the planning stages and to be in a position to attract funding to deliver the project.

The following groups are eligible to apply for the fund: (more…)

York swimming pools usage was increasing

Yearsley still second most popular facility in City

Waterworld - closed by the York Council this month

Waterworld – closed by the York Council this month

Figures released today, by the York Council under Freedom of Information legislation, cast further doubts on the wisdom of jettisoning the Yearsley swimming pool.

The figures reveal that last year Yearsley had 118,611 users compared to 110,231 at Waterworld (which has now been closed by the Council) and the new York Sports Village.

The latter, in its first full year of operation, had 110,218 customers making it the least popular swimming facility in the City.

Swimming pool attendances and subsidy costs Click to enlarge

Swimming pool attendances and subsidy costs Click to enlarge

The new pool does, however, seem to have attracted some additional customers as total swims in the City (excluding private and school based pools) rose from 508,125 in 2012/13 to 522,65 last year.

The figures also reveal that swimming receives a £1/2 million subsidy each year from taxpayers. That is relatively modest comparison to historical investment levels.

While Yearsley is the most expensive pool to operate, it doesn’t enjoy any cross subsidy from other activities – like fitness and studio work – which accounted for most of the income at the other pool sites.

Without the cooperation of Nestle, who own the surrounding land, it would be impossible to increase the range of sports catered for at the Yearsley site.

All in all, closing both Waterworld and Yearsley and replacing the facilities with a single – sports village style clone pool – does increasingly seem to be a major misjudgement by the Council.

Residents are clearly looking for a wider range of water activities and locations in the City.

Council Tax freeze in York?

It seems that for the first time since the LibDems were in control of the York Council in 2011, a tax freeze may be applied for the forthcoming year.

Council Tax Dec 2014

The new Leader of the Labour Group on the Council is set to do a 180 degree police about turn. He says that he will freeze Council Tax levels at the present rate irrespective of whether the government provides a subsidy.

The previous regime had planned another 1.8% Council Tax increase bringing in around £1.3 million to the Council’s coffers. A higher increase than this might have required a referendum to find out residents views.

Where the £1.3 million will comes from is anyone’s guess although for the last 4 years the York Council has been offered a government subsidy to freeze tax levels.

The offer for the current year was worth £778,000 and was subsequently rejected by Cllr Alexander. So there is still money to find if the pledge is to be honoured.

Last February the Council agreed a 2 year financial strategy.

Since then pressures on Council spending have continued to increase. As well as inflation, currently running at 1.3%, the number of elderly requiring care continues to rise and the Councils botched performance on waste management means that landfill tax bills are also increasing.

Add in a potential liability of over £1 million for Lendal Bridge (and maybe Coppergate) refunds and the budget looks tight to say the least.

Several of the economies forecast last February have failed to mature most noticeably in the field of social care. There an auditors report found that £3.9 million in savings had not been delivered.

There will be some good news to ease budget decisions for the Council. Fuel prices are falling, it will receive another “new homes bonus” payment from the government and business rates income will increase as the economy continues to improve.

Pretty much every taxpayer will expect that a freeze on new expenditure would be introduced at the same time as any freeze on Council income levels. The Council will need to redirect its resources to improving basic services. It will need to shelve some of its major capital projects, reduce the amount that it is borrowing and thereby cut interest and repayment costs.

“Media centres”, “access bridges” to the York central site and the like, should in future be financed by the private sector..

Over the last 4 years Council Tax increases in York have been:

  • 2011/12 Freeze (last LibDem Council budget. Government subsidy accepted)
  • 2012/13 +2.9 (First Labour budget – Council Tax freeze subsidy rejected by James Alexander)
  • 2013/14 +1.9% (CT freeze subsidy rejected)
  • 2014/15 +1.9% (Ct freeze subsidy rejected)

In all, the average York resident is paying £67 a year more in Council Tax than would have been the case if government subsidies had been accepted during the last 3 years.

The vast majority of Councils did accept the subsidy offers.