Norfolk – putting people first

[wendy]

Putting People First Consultation event for carers: Monday 7 October 2013 – Norwich Daytime: 2-4pm Open Bank Plain,Norwich NR24SF

A chance to have your say about this.............

[wendy]

Working together to bridge a £189m funding shortfall – Norfolk County Council’s consultation
Foreword by County Councillor George Nobbs, Leader of Norfolk County Council

“The money that Norfolk County Council receives from the Government in order to provide all the services that you, the people of Norfolk, need and use has been drastically reduced over the last three years. We, as your Council, have already made cuts of £140m and that hasn’t been done without a lot of pain and sacrifice.

Now, however, the Government is reducing its financial support even further over the next three years - even though demand for many of the services we have to provide, such as care and support for vulnerable older people and children and young people, is increasing.

The Government funding reduction and the increase in demand for our services, combined with rises in some unavoidable costs like fuel, means that from the latest financial information available, we have to plan to meet a shortfall of £189m and cut this from our spending. This will mean making even tougher decisions than before. We have made our own proposals for dealing with that shortfall. Every council in Britain is in the same position. We must work within the budget provided – however difficult that will be.

We have started by setting our own house in order but that can only do so much. Let there be no doubt there will be serious reductions in services and we will be honest about it. When we propose cuts we will say so and not try to disguise the fact. Cuts will be called ‘cuts’!

We frankly can’t do this without your help. That’s why we’ve set up the biggest listening exercise that has ever taken place in Norfolk. We need to listen to your views and find out what you think we should spend our limited income on. After all, it’s largely your money and your services.

We have been very clear about our ambition for Norfolk and our priorities for Norfolk people at this very tough time.

Our ambition for Norfolk is for everyone in Norfolk to succeed and fulfil their potential. By putting people first we can achieve a better, safer future, based on education, economic success and listening to local communities.

Our priorities are:

Excellence in education – We will champion our children and young people’s right to an excellent education, training and preparation for employment because we believe they have the talent and ability to compete with the best. We firmly believe that every single child matters.

Real jobs – We will promote employment that offers security, opportunities and a good level of pay. We want real, sustainable jobs available throughout Norfolk.

Good infrastructure – We will make Norfolk a place where businesses can succeed and grow. We will promote improvements to our transport and technology infrastructure to make Norfolk a great place to do business.

We will fulfil these priorities by:

    Standing up for the interests of people in Norfolk - arguing for resources and investment
    Promoting prosperity by championing homes, jobs and local economic success
    Working to increase opportunities so that everyone can fulfil their potential
    Listening to, learning from and working with our communities so local solutions can improve the quality of life
    Ensuring people get as high quality services as we can afford and clear information about how to access them
    Stepping up our efforts to be as efficient as possible, being open to the views of local people and helping your elected representatives influence decisions that affect you.

We understand there are many other calls on the Council’s resources and activities which we will continue to do our best to meet.

However we firmly believe it is by giving specific priority to these three critically important areas - which we do not believe have received sufficient priority over past years – that we will achieve the best overall results for Norfolk people.

Our continuing commitment to providing caring services is reflected in our overall aim of putting people first and the lower percentage reductions in the budgets we are proposing for children's services and those for vulnerable adults.

Only by working together can we expect to close such a massive funding gap and realistically hope to keep the level of service cuts needed to the minimum possible, given such harsh circumstances.

So I very much hope you will take the time to read our consultation document, consider the proposals we have put forward and give us your views.”

County Councillor George Nobbs

Leader of Norfolk County Council
When we are consulting

Norfolk County Council would like your views on the proposals set out in our consultation document.

Our consultation starts on Thursday 19 September and will run for 12 weeks.

This means that we need your views by Thursday 12 December 2013.
http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/Council_and_d ... /index.htm

‘Paul Jackson, Community Engagement Manager, Norfolk County Council’



NCC has organised a number of events to make the consultation accessible to a wide range of groups, many of which are being delivered in partnership. You can find information about these events, and how to apply, on the NCC website http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/puttingpeoplefirst

Consultation events specifically for carers are:

Monday 7 October 2013 – Norwich Daytime: 2-4pm Venue: Open Address: Bank Plain, Norwich NR2 4SF

Thursday 7 November 2013 – King’s Lynn Daytime: 9.30-11.30am Venue: West Norfolk Professional Development Centre Address: Kilham's Way, King's Lynn, PE30 2HU

Friday 8 November 2013 – Great Yarmouth Daytime: 10.30-12.30pm Venue: King’s Church Conference Centre Address: Queen Anne's Road, Southtown, Great Yarmouth NR31 0LE

These events are delivered in partnership with the Carers Agency Partnership and the Carers Council.

Attendance at any of the events must be booked in advance. This is to help NCC manage each event and understand any specific requirements you may have to enable you to attend. You can book a place to attend an event by completing the online registration form.

Should you experience difficulty with booking, please email consultationteam@norfolk.gov.uk or call the Consultation and Community Relations team on 01603 679343.

Please communicate with as many of your members as possible about this important opportunity for carers to have a say in the proposals for budget savings being put forward.

Thank you so much for your help with this.

Yours sincerely

Maggie Williams

Maggie Williams

Carers Agency Partnership Manager

Maggie.williams@crossroadseastanglia.org.uk

[wendy]

@HodgsonCarla
Have just returned from the first Budget Cut Consulation for Carers. My role was to tweet the event so if you want an overview of what went on log onto @HodgsonCarla or @CCNorfolk in Twitter.

Disappointingly there were very few carers present and the group posited one of the reasons might be that there was not a great deal of time between notification of the event and the event itself. Carers needs time to make arrangements to attend events. It was suggested that if NCC is interested in carer's views, then maybe they should go to carers rather than have carers come to them.

That said, it was a very interesting discussion and a nice mix of people including one of NCC's new carer's assessors.

[Alun]

As I cannot be away from my wife for more than 2 hours and all these venues are at least an hours round trip from my home near Thetford it was difficult to attend.

But interestingly they state its a consultation at the moment, my wife had an annual assessment for her care in December and some social activities where cut as per the proposal, including mileage for any trips, hospital appointments, doctors, cinema, theatre etc, where she had previously been told to claim. Below is a link to a statement from Equal Lives.

http://www.equallives.org.uk/equal-live ... tion-cuts/

[Honey]

tha22222 for this
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