4 April (Part 2) - Adults’ Services Committee. Not listening, working against you
The
second meeting yesterday was chaired by councillor Eileen Pallen who I have not
seen perform before. I wasn't impressed.
I particularly wanted to hear what was said at this meeting because over the
past year I have discovered that several Bexley care workers live not too far
from me and through them I’ve learned a little of the conditions under which they and
their colleagues work. I consider myself to be quite a long way removed from
being a bleeding heart Socialist or even Liberal, but I have become seriously
concerned about what I see as cynical exploitation of low paid workers by Bexley
council. Only a few weeks ago our council announced, apparently with a degree of pride, that it
pays less for care services than any nearby borough. If only that were the whole story.
You may be relieved to hear that the meeting was tedious and wholly self
congratulatory so I am going to skip the detail. It began with an address by a
volunteer from the Alzheimer's Society speaking of their work and the help
provided by Bexley council. Most of us will have had a family member affected by
this dreadful affliction but most present looked totally bored. To be fair it is
probable that no one learned a great deal that was new.
As the meeting got into its stride it became apparent that there was something
wrong with the microphone system. If anyone raised their voice above a whisper
it provoked a high pitched whine right on the edge of my own audible limits. The
members of the Bexley Council Monitoring Group were apparently oblivious to the
aural torture as all three present are as deaf as the proverbial post and their
hearing aids were not passing the offending noise through. After various council
officers told us how wonderful they were questions from councillors were largely
confined to Peter Catterall, Cheryl Bacon and Peter Reader. Intelligent enough
questions in my view. Peter C. wanted to know what happened to families that were
for whatever reason unable to take up a council offer of social housing. The
answer was in essence ‘slung on the scrapheap’. Peter is not a heartless Tory Toff
and didn’t seem to be overjoyed at the prospect of people sleeping in shop
doorways but if he asked how many people might be so affected I didn’t hear the answer.
At
one stage councillor Catterall didn’t turn his microphone on and one of the
BCMG people raised his hand while asking if the forgetful professor could remedy
his omission. Peter said he had not turned it on because he couldn’t stand the
feedback any more; however recognising the council’s responsibilities he flicked
the switch. Then he moved the microphone rather too far from his lips which
provoked another BCMG hand in the air. Peter Catterall did his best to
compromise. During the whole of this episode chairman Eileen Pallen studiously
ignored the issue and Mick Barnbrook whose hand had been in the air. Has she learned nothing from
the pen-jabbing mayor
whose disdain for the deaf saw him interviewed by the Local Government Ombudsman a couple of months ago?
Later in the evening I moved from one side of the council chamber to the other
to sit behind Peter Catterall and fairly close to the chairman. Over there the
feedback was indeed horrible, far worse than Mick Barnbrook could know from the
other side of the chamber and Peter Caterrall’s ‘excuses’ were in my opinion totally
justified. But not the lack of comment by the chairman.
Before my move there were two further incidents. Elwyn Bryant, knowing how I
have been taking a close interest in care services, came over to me and whispered a
question into my ear. I could barely hear him but whispered my reply.
This provoked a complaint from councillors Sybil Camsey and Geraldene
Lucia-Hennis. Both drew the chairman’s attention to
“the disturbance”. Chairman Pallen appeared to ignore that too, I’m not
totally sure as I was still a bit taken aback by their complaint because I do
try very hard to follow their many rules. The whisper
was nothing like as disturbing as the microphone feedback.
Camsey is the councillor who has said that petitions to Bexley council are
not worth the paper
they are written on and Lucia-Hennis is famed for getting into
a serious
argument with a resident and then claiming it didn’t count because she was not
on duty at the time; as if a councillor is only a councillor when in the council chamber.
A
month ago there was a Commons debate on council care services and the BCMG
had got hold of a copy of Hansard. My MP, Teresa Pearce, had played a leading role and had drawn the
House’s attention to the somewhat dubious employment practices of Bexley council
and that they were “abdicating responsibility” for its care workers which is
exactly what my own enquiries revealed. Not that it is a big secret, cabinet
member Chris Taylor has gone public in the past with his claim that once he
contracts out a service to an independent agency
he has no further responsibilities.
The BCMG wanted to ask, as permitted by the council’s protocols, if the Committee was
aware of the Hansard report. It would have taken 30 seconds at most. However the chairman
steadfastly looked away and ignored the hand in the air and the following spoken interruption.
As a chairman she was totally out of her depth and this representative of ‘The Listening Council’ was struck dumb.
When the three BCMG members - and myself - began to discuss Pallen’s lamentable performance among
themselves she said she would adjourn the meeting. The BCMG people chose to leave instead; you
can be sure there will be a formal complaint. It was at this stage that I moved across the chamber
to get a closer look at the pathetic chairman who was totally uninterested in the
MP’s assertion that Bexley’s care worker employment model passes responsibility to a vulnerable person.
The meeting ended after 135 minutes at 21:45 and I asked Mr. Tom Brown, Deputy Director
of Adult Care, if he knew of the Hansard report and in particular that Bexley’s
sub-contracted care
workers are paid in a way which almost certainly contravenes the minimum wage
regulations? I found Mr. Brown to be a perfectly decent man ready and willing to
speak to me but regrettably he did not know and was happy to tell me that is not
something the council would wish to get involved in. He was, no doubt, only
obeying orders. Cabinet member
Chris Taylor has a lot to answer for.