Sloppy management of Public Services

The job of any government or local authority is to provide essential public services to an acceptable standard. However this principle seems to be lost on the current Tory leadership of Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. The RBWM internal investigation and review into the death of baby Callum told of short staffing, high turnover of staff, inexperienced, overworked social workers with unmanageable caseloads. Since then bland assurances about children’s services have been made by the leadership but no detail given as to how the sloppy management of the last 5 years will not be repeated.

The very same staffing problems are taking place in adult services too; ie where the care of vulnerable older people and those with disabilities is managed. Worst of all RBWM is doing nothing to manage the situation, agency staff come and go, morale is low and staff are worn out. Morale is so bad in this department that RBWM has been unable to recruit enough permanent staff.

The Boroughs staffing problems started 5 years ago when Mr Burbage decided that he wanted to cut harder and faster than any other local authority in the country. His annual cuts to council tax have been paid for with staff cuts in Social Services, Sure Start and numerous other essential services.

The extent of the poor management became clear this week when Councillor Simon Dudley announced that there was an underspend of £1.2 million on the budget; ie they cannot even control their budget to provide the services that we, the tax payers, have been promised.

RBWM Tory leadership has been in charge too long, we need Labour Councillors in the meetings challenging, scrutinising and changing unsound decisions. Next May, please vote Labour to bring balance and fair play back into local politics.