Posts from — June 2010

The RDAs are going but what about the money?…

Regional Development Agencies were one of Labour’s favourite QANGOs.

Advantage West Midlands was our region’s RDA… an unelected body which dished out billions of pounds of tax payers’ money aimed solely at regenerating and growing the region’s prosperity.

Or so it was meant to. Evidentially, the fact that the West Midlands is in fact the worst performing of all the regions rather suggests it didn’t work. To be fair there’s more to our region’s problems than just AWM although it might shed some light on why they were commonly known in the ‘industry’ as ‘Dis’advantage West Midlands.

Well, they are going thanks to the new coallition national government and good ridence because Staffordshire didn’t get much from AWM over many years. That’s partly down to AWM and partly down to Staffordshire’s previous Labour administration who were lacklustre at best in securing inward investment from anywhere.

So, what now? The new proposals are for local government to enter into regeneration and enterprise partnerships with business and industry to agree jointly where and how to invest a much smaller pot of money for the West Midlands.

But that rather assumes local government will all work together as a region. Not so I’m afraid. Birmingham have straight away broken ranks and headed at break neck speed, Black Country in tow, for the existing funding in splendid isolation from the shire authorities.

If that’s the way it’s going to be, Staffordshire and the other four shire counties which make up the West Midlands had better get ready for a fight if we want a fair share for our economies. All working together would probably provide a better chance of climbing up from last place in the British regions… but it seems not to be the reality where Birmingham’s concerned.

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Tougher processes for investigations planned…

By vulnerable it means those less able to look after themselves. Elderly people or adults with physical disabilities or mental health issues.

Safeguarding is a big priority for me and I’m taking a hands on approach to moving this forwards in Staffordshire.

There are many different ways that their welfare could be threatened. It could be conmen fleecing older people of their savings to isolation and accidents in the home or neglect and poor care in places which should be providing the opposite. Stafford Hospital being a tragic and high profile example of the latter in years gone by.

And there is plenty going on to tackle this problem, particularly with a growing proportion of the population who are older and more frail or with mental or physical disabilities but still want to stay independent in their own homes amongst their own friends and family.

Of course, there are many whose needs are so complex that some form of 24/7 support is essential. But many people could, with a little extra support stay healthy and live a fuller more normal life. And it is those individuals that our increasing efforts need to ’safeguard’.

Pevention wise, more and more public agencies in Staffordshire are being trained what to look for when they visit people’s homes in their different roles. Police, health visitors, the fire service (who are doing amazing stuff on this) and some others can now identify risks such as fire, trip hazzards and security issues.

And if, sadly, vulnerable adults do suffer some harm there are changes coming to investigating the circumstances. The national statutory process means that the public body responsible for the aspect of ’care’ in question is also responsible for investigating the circumstances around the harm. 

To me that is wrong and not the transparency and accountability I believe should be in place. Perhaps I’m a cinic but I can’t help thinking that, even if not intentionally, there is a risk of self investigation leading to a benefit of the doubt or worse. At the very least from a public point of view that arrangement surely is questionable.

We made significant progress earlier this year when I appointed a new Independent Chairman to oversee the work of all the senior officials from key public sector bodies who make up the Safeguarding Board for Staffordshire. Now I want to take that another major step forwards so that everything which is investigated by any public body also goes to that Independent Chair to assess.

A really important check and balance which to me is common sense. And other investigations which are carried out by that group of senior officials will also be assessed and signed off by the Independent Chair as a matter of course.

A clear impartial arbitor which will strengthen accountability and raise public confidence. It’s worth remembering that the years during the questionable and tragic patient deaths at Stafford Hospital saw a negligable number of of even low level investigations carried out. That’s just not right.

So, we are making good progress on both trying to mitigate against the risk of harm to vulnerable people and also putting tougher, more transparent processes in place if cases need investigating.

We are also working on a new and easier to use public front end for reporting concerns around vulnerable adults. In the meantime if you are worried about someone you know you can find out who to tell adn how here.

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Don’t often write about stuff outside my work but overcharging has driven me nuts over recent weeks…

Ok, I don’t, hand on heart, do the weekly shop. But I do usually go and buy the stuff for BBQs or dinner parties because it’s usually me that does the cooking then.

So what I’m about to write could be seen as snapshots or just plain unlucky. But many snapshots make an album which in turn builds up a wider picture.

Because I don’t do the ‘regular’ shop I usually notice the prices of things I take off the shelf. And the last few months I’d estimate that nearly half my visits to supermarkets have resulted in at least one item being charged a different price at the checkout to what it says on the shelf.

It’s always niggled me a bit because I can’t help wondering how much of this goes on and how many people just don’t notice they are contributing extra to the billions in profits.

And today I’m finally writing about this because the weekend just gone I shopped at two different and very well know supermarkets each of which overcharged me for items and each of which half heartedly apologised in a matter of fact sort of way using exactly the same ‘must be an updating error’ excuse at the checkout.

I got the distinct sense they weren’t really bothered or that it happens so often it is the norm. The one failure to register a ‘buy one get one free’ and at the other place charging 90p more than the shelf price on each of the four bottles of wine added up to a £7.10 overcharge on a total spend between the two shops of about fifty quid.

Just how much of the millions or billions they make relates to this sort of thing. I wonder?

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