Cllr Anthony Taylor (Labour, Taibach) has posted on his blog: “Councillors of all parties signed up to support the modernisation of residential care services, clear in the knowledge that radical decisions needed to be made. The next few months is not about ducking the issues but adopting a carefully thought out solution that enables us as a local authority to deliver for the people who need our help most.”

One assumes that Cllr Taylor’s day job of acting as aide to MEP Derek Vaughan has prevented him from keeping in close touch with the discussions among members so far. This member of a non-Labour party is not at all convinced that PFI, the option clearly preferred by the ruling group on the council, is the way forward. It should also be pointed out that full council has not yet endorsed the decision of cabinet on 27th January.

Residents of care homes and their relations will be concerned by Cllr Taylor’s use of the word “modernisation” which has come to mean, in New Labour’s lexicon, the same as the Conservatives’ “rationalisation”: i.e. job cuts, wage cuts and the toleration of  inequality between the sexes.

As I posted earlier,  I accept the need for outside involvement, because of the pressure put on local government finances by central government and the way in which the condition of all but one of the existing care homes has fallen behind the Welsh Assembly Government’s required standard. However, as Liberal Democrat group leader, Cllr Keith Davies, points out, the standards document is dated March 2004. In other words, our council has had nearly ten years to bring our care homes up to standard.

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