10 September (Part 2) - Early intervention
It
must be the in phrase. Director of Social Care, Mark Charters, used it three times in the first four paragraphs of
his reported interview
with CommunityCare at the beginning of the month, and now it is the main theme of
Bexley council’s latest Press Release. “Early Intervention’.
It is a nice ‘sounds good’ phrase but I imagine it might generate a certain amount of rage when
Trevor Lawrie
reads it. Early Intervention by Bexley’s failing care services might well have saved his grandson from a
life of pain and an early death.
It’s always possible Bexley council has learned something from their mistakes I suppose. The previous director
Deborah
Absalom left soon after Rhys died. It might not be coincidence, but in
political circles the same old attitudes prevail.
Cabinet member Chris Taylor is not afraid to boast at council meetings - twice
in my presence - that Bexley council has been paying its care workers less than
any other nearby borough. Illegally below the minimum wage in some cases.
Freezing council tax is all very nice and looks good on an election leaflet, but it comes at a price. People die.
No one answers
emergency calls, no one can afford to put
a warden in
sheltered housing - but we can afford £100 million for a
Boris bike track.