The Liberal Democrat group on the County Council have been shocked and saddened by the death of a family in Wheathampstead. Whilst the exact circumstances of the deaths of Stephanie Backler and Samantha Wolf remain unclear, what is clear is that a full independent investigation into these deaths is needed.

Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Liberal Democrat Deputy Group Leader said: ‘Initial reports suggest that the family was known to Adult Care Services and had an assessment in 1998 and contact in 2006 where they refused further offers of help. The circumstances of these sad deaths need to be independently investigated.’

Stephen Giles-Medhurst concluded: ‘Our thoughts go out to family and friends of Stephanie and Samantha, we will continue to press to get a proper review into what happened.’

ENDS

After challenge from Lib Dem Nick Hollinghurst today, the county council has continued to maintain a policy of Maximum Complacency when it comes to the failing home care service in the county.

Astonishingly, the Tories attempted to claim the fact that they had been forced to sack a care providing company was somehow a sign that they were better than other councils with social services responsibilities.

Surely: this should be a badge of shame not a badge of pride?

This week’s Panorama programme highlighted yet again the stress and
pressure put on social workers in children’s services.

Councils year on year have to find cost savings: here in Hertfordshire the
solution was to replace social workers with case workers. Case workers are
not trained in social care but trained by the council to manage cases. This
practice has now stopped but recruiting social workers is proving difficult
so the situation has not improved.

Chris White, Liberal Democrat group leader, said: ‘We have been highlighting
this issue for years. We need well paid, well trained, highly qualified
social workers to protect our most vulnerable children. This year the
Liberal Democrats supported the proposals to increase funding for social
workers but also added yet more money to the budget for increases in social
workers’ pay.

‘Sadly this was rejected by the Conservatives and Labour.’

You can see Panorama on BBC iplay: http://tiny.cc/oUQSn

Readers may have seen the truly distressing Panorama programme last night showing the state in which some of our elderly people have been kept by private companies. I will be following this up by calling for an Inquiry into the management of home care contracts in Hertfordshire.

The programme is available on BBC iplayer at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jnknl/Panorama_Britains_Homecare_Scandal/

Herts is about 29 minutes in but the whole programme is worth watching.

Fix 3

We have been raising the scandal of the home care service in Hertfordshire for some time. Tonight’s Panorama programme, which interviewed me on a number of occasions, features Care UK, a company that the council was forced to sack just ten months after awarding the contract. Meanwhile, problems rumble on in the rest of the county, not least St Albans.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_7990000/7990682.stm

It is clear that complaints about the home care service are coming in at one every two days in the St Albans area. If any readers have their own experiences then please let me know.