Labour council accuses minister of ‘moral bankruptcy’ over social care dispute
📖 Full Retelling
<p>Hartlepool leaders ‘furious and appalled’ after meeting with Steve Reed about growing cost of social care</p><p>The housing, communities and local government secretary, Steve Reed, has been accused by a Labour council of showing “arrogance, indifference and moral bankruptcy” towards children in social care.</p><p>In an unusually forthright attack, Labour leaders of Hartlepool council said they were “furious and appalled” at Reed after a meeting with him last week
Entity Intersection Graph
No entity connections available yet for this article.
Original Source
Labour council accuses minister of ‘moral bankruptcy’ over social care dispute Hartlepool leaders ‘furious and appalled’ after meeting with Steve Reed about growing cost of social care The housing, communities and local government secretary, Steve Reed, has been accused by a Labour council of showing “arrogance, indifference and moral bankruptcy” towards children in social care. In an unusually forthright attack, Labour leaders of Hartlepool council said they were “furious and appalled” at Reed after a meeting with him last week. A cross-party delegation had asked the secretary of state for £3m to help alleviate the growing cost of social care. The town in County Durham is one of the most deprived in England. It has the third highest number of children in care per capita in the country. Pamela Hargreaves, the Labour leader of Hartlepool council, told the Guardian that Reed said the government would not “reward councils for having high numbers of children in care” and then “dismissed” the discussion by saying: “That’s life.” “That comment tells you everything,” Hargreaves said. “Shrugging at abused and exploited children is not policy, it is moral bankruptcy. “Calling proper funding for children in care a ‘reward’ is obscene and offensive. Protecting vulnerable children is a basic moral and legal duty of the state.” She added: “Our children and our families deserve far better than arrogance, indifference and a shrug of ‘that’s life’.” The government said it was fixing an outdated and unfair council funding system and had made £78bn available for local authorities next year, as well as a 33% increase for Hartlepool council by 2028-29. A government spokesperson said: “Our fair funding reforms will ensure councils get the funding they need to deliver high-quality public services that local people deserve.” Reed has said ministers were “realigning” funding so that poorer areas got a fairer share. However, local government leaders have said a significant increase in fundi...
Read full article at source