"County Care Cuts - A Step Too Far" say Lib Dems.

2.31.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 12th Sep 2006

Commenting on Northamptonshire County Council's Cabinet decision to change the Eligibility Criteria to Social Care, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader on Northamptonshire County Council, Councillor Sally Beardsworth said: "These changes are driven by budget cuts - not by people's needs. The County Council is failing the people of Northamptonshire."

"Although the changes were planned in February, we were not allowed to scrutinise the changes until July. The time for scrutiny was five weeks, far too little time to do justice to the work"

"These cuts are happening at the same time as National Health Service cuts, cutting the number of beds in hospital and particularly mental health services. Between them, the Tory County Council and a Labour run NHS are demonstrating that the most vulnerable people in our society get a raw deal from both Labour and the Tories."

"Liberal Democrats believe that we have a duty of care to vulnerable people in our society and we have demonstrated by our alternative budget proposals how the council should be funding that care."

The main thrust of the proposals is to split the classification of "Substantial Needs" into "Greater Substantial Needs" and "Lesser Substantial Needs." Those who are placed in the "Lesser Substantial Needs" category will effectively loose a level of service and care from the County Council. This will affect approx. 1,500 people.