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From The Socialist newspaper, 26 January 2016
Care services under threat in Haringey
Care services for the elderly could disappear, photo by Chris Marchant (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)
John Dolan, Haringey Council care worker
The privatised adult care service in Haringey, north London, replaced the public service when the council cut it. Now the private service also faces closure.
In an earlier round of austerity cuts under the Con-Dem government, Haringey Council in north London closed its council-run respite service for adults with learning disabilities.
They instead relied on the private sector to provide this service, but a recent experience has illustrated once again that private provision doesn't meet caring needs.
Look Ahead Care and Support ran Haringey respite services after the closure of Haringey Council's provision and also provided a supported living service and outreach services.
At the end of December 2015 Look Ahead wrote to the families of service users stating:
"Services have consistently been operating at a large deficit for the organisation, which is no longer sustainable. We can no longer continue to deliver these services and continue to sustain the financial losses. We have to inform you that Look Ahead Care and Support have sadly needed to serve notice on the contract and we will cease to operate the support provision on all the Haringey services from the 12 January 2016."
Guarantee
This shows that the only way to guarantee proper care provision for vulnerable people is through a publicly managed, publicly funded service based on needs not ability to pay.
Haringey's Labour-run council should once again provide these services that the private sector has walked away from because 'they are unprofitable'.
Haringey Council should also halt their current widespread privatisation plans, to prove in practice that the Labour Party is now an anti-austerity party.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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In The Socialist 26 January 2016:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill
Davos summit: a broken capitalist system
Google pays pittance for avoiding £2bn tax
Red doors and wristbands scandal
Steelworkers may face benefit cut-off for not seeking bar jobs
Oscars snub black artists: fight racism and austerity in the arts
Labour councillor smears TUSC policy as 'BNP'
Top tweets: #TraditionallySubmissive
Teachers under attack
Teaching: a perfect storm is brewing
Teachers need national strategy for a national struggle
A day in the life of a teacher and mother
International socialist news and analysis
New wave of protests in Tunisia
India: student death exposes caste oppression
What we think
Tories 'Prevent' civil liberties
Council cuts and the fight in Labour
Labour councillor suspended for fighting cuts
Dave Nellist's byelection appeal to Jeremy Corbyn: 'let's discuss how to fight the cuts'
Labour election post-mortem: nothing to report!
The dark arts of Labour's right
Councillors must fight to defend our services
'People's budgets' and local democracy
Lewisham: no backsliding in council cuts fight!
Workplace news and analysis
"I have left work many times in tears" - a council worker
Trade union bill will stretch resources and limit action
Birmingham teachers strike to resist academy attack
Care services under threat in Haringey
Readers' comment
The end for deep coal mining jobs in Britain
Obituary: Dean Meehan 1962-2016
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Protesting against closure of Huddersfield A&E
Coventry children's services closure protest
New Socialist Party branch fights against St Austell austerity
Socialist Party discusses the fight for socialism
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