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Elderly to get £54k advisers
Helen Johnson6/ 9/2008
TWO extra officers are being appointed to act as advisers to the cabinet member responsible for older people.
It will cost Rochdale Council a minimum of £54,000 a year in salaries for a policy officer and a policy support officer.
The decision was immediately attacked by Councillor Ashley Dearnley, the leader of the Conservative group, who called it ‘a waste of money’.
Claiming the appointment was the ‘thin edge of the wedge’, which would lead to other cabinet members asking for extra help, Councillor Dearnley said the money would be better spent giving pensioners a £25 cut in council tax.
He questioned why the work could not be undertaken by staff already on the payroll.
The new policy officers will assist Councillor Pauline Maguire, the cabinet’s portfolio holder for older people, to develop policies and improve services for the over 50s.
She strongly defended her need for the extra resources, stressing that the existing policy officers already had demanding workloads and the current resources available were not enough to ensure the needs of older people were being met.
She said: "The policy team is small and consists of three full- time and one part-time member of staff.
Smaller
"The team is significantly smaller than it was two years ago, when there were more than 10.
"This means there is little capacity for taking on new work and each time any new work is assigned to the team an assessment of its ability to deliver has to be undertaken. Existing budgets are based on current workload."
The decision by the cabinet to go ahead with the appointments was upheld at a later council performance scrutiny meeting.
Councillor Dearnley said: "I’m appalled that the Lib Dems are not even allowing a proper debate on this item.
"We should be all about providing services, not support officers to portfolio holders.
"It’s the thin end of the wedge.
"If all 10 portfolio holders wanted policy advisers like this it would cost upwards of £680,000. Where does it stop?
"It’s an insult to the elderly people of this borough, who have made it quite clear that this is not what they want.
"Help should be provided for people with a reduction in council tax, that’s the first and best thing we can do, especially in this time of financial hardship."
Councillor Maguire was supported by her colleague, Councillor Rosemary Jones, who said: "At one time there were 10 policy officers and now there are only three.
"It is obvious that they are over-stretched.
"To insinuate that the proposed officers would just be kept close to the policy holder would be a misnomer."
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9/09/2008 at 09:18
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10/09/2008 at 08:56