Job losses and day centre closures
Two day centres for the mentally ill are likely to be closed and
36 jobs may go in the first round of cuts announced by the Council.
Ealing has to make savings of £53 million by 2014 and has agreed to the first tranche of reductions which total over £5 million.
Departmental restructuring forms part of the saving and could mean 36 posts being deleted in January 2011.
Other cuts include the closure of the Albert Dane day centre and LINKS day service. People using these services will be assessed to see if they are eligible for an individual budget, which gives recipients choice to purchase care services that meet their needs.
Cllr Greg Stafford, Shadow Member - Adult Services & Health said: '' Effectively they will be turfing out users whose needs they are only going to assess after the fact, and by the sounds of which, most of whom will be found to be ineligible for Council services.
''It is very disheartening to see Labour targeting the service users who have the least voice''
Council Leader, Julian Bell said: “The council, like all parts of the public sector, is having to make major budget reductions. We don’t want to do this but have to take the tough decisions needed while striving to protect public services for local people.
“Delivering £5 million savings at this early stage is a considerable achievement and will help us to spread the financial pain we are expecting when the government cuts come into affect. We have a clear process in place for delivering the rest of the reductions that will need to be made by 2014.”
All Cabinet decisions are subject to call in for a period of five working days from the date of publication of the minutes of the meeting.
September 15, 2010