Thousands more homes built despite flood risk warnings : i NEWS.

Within this article is there not some misunderstandings of the respective authorities. Surely responsibility for planning is a local government responsibility and generally the Government.

But that being said no housing should be built on flood plains, unless safeguards are incorporated in the planning process.

Planning for 2016/17 and beyond: from survival to sustainability | The King’s Fund

With the publication today of our briefing on the impact of the NHS planning guidance, Phoebe Dunn discusses the key findings and what this could mean for the future of the NHS.

Source: Planning for 2016/17 and beyond: from survival to sustainability | The King’s Fund

Local government fees and charges ‘likely to rise’ – BBC News

Councils warn of fees and charges rising despite some authorities already increasing such revenue by more than 100% in three years.

Source: Local government fees and charges ‘likely to rise’ – BBC News

Social Care Commitment

How the Social Care Commitment can help you achieve quality* from Gov.UK Blog Social care

An extract ‘I’ve talked many times about the benefits of making the Social Care Commitment, but I am often asked by hard pressed employers how it fits in with other initiatives and standards they have to meet day in and day out. With resources stretched for everyone, employers are rightly asking ‘what’s in it for me?………..’

’…………When employers and employees make their commitment, they automatically create a development plan at the same time, recording the tasks and activity that the employer or employee has promised to put the commitment into practice. As these tasks are based on the Social Care Commitment statements, they can be easily mapped across to the KLOE and fundamental standards and used as evidence to support CQC compliance.

That’s why we are working with the CQC and their inspectors so they can recognise a commitment development plan and see how this can support inspection. It is certainly worth looking at some sample development plans to see how they could help your organisation.  …………..’

The Concordat, the policeman and a plea for continuous crisis care* from Gov.UK Blog Social care

An extract ‘The Social Care News blog joined our esteemed events & visits and policy colleagues at the very first Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat Summit, held yesterday at the Grand Connaught Rooms in central London.

Chief Inspector Daniel Thorpe wants us all to strive for 365 days a year crisis care

This was an opportunity for Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb to join leading voices from NHS England, MIND, the police, service users and the wider sector to review progress made since theConcordat’s launch in February. It also served as a reminder that the deadline of 15 December for local crisis care declarations is fast approaching.

Many areas have already declared. You can see if your region has an action plan in placeusing this map. ………’

 

As your area made a ‘local crisis care declaration’ check with the map mentioned above.

* Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Councils have money in reserves

Local council spending

Although Local Councils believe they are run like business, in that each department has a budget, this is as far as it goes.  For as long as I can remember, councils have been unable to plan for the long term.  Just look at what some do, patch roads instead of resurfacing. This is a short term measure, as a patch will not last as long as a complete resurface, but is of course cheaper on costs in the short term. In Social Housing many councils will only do emergency repairs as and when required, when a full repair of required areas would be more cost effective over the longer term, but each individual emergency repair is cheaper. But how many emergency repairs are required over the long term and then totally are most expensive than the full repair.

Also in Sheffield there are a number of council run attractions, such as health centres, libraries, etc. Most people attending these attractions spend a good part of the day there, but do the council have any outlets for refreshments, in that they have to some extent a captive cliental. Just look at privately run outlets from DIY centres, garden nurseries and garden centres to large departmental stores and shopping centres, all have at least one refreshment outlet.

But to add to council expenses previous governments have increased staffing costs.

Local councillors were not paid expenses until 1970, by Edward Heath. But they did not gain access to Local Government Pensions until 2003, a luxury made possible by Tony Blair.  This is a perk which the current government are looking to stop.

Re paying expenses, surely this was good, as it enabled all eligible UK citizens to stand, not only the rich. To then offer pensions as well was totally overboard, but that is in keeping with Labour policies.

As to keeping reserves, where possible this should be encouraged, as it provides a safety net for lean times.  Are these lean times and should therefore some of the reserves be brought into the current spending calculation. If so, then only the part of the reserves not already earmarked for other projects could be used.

But remember when reserves have been exhausted, there are no more, should times become even leaner.