Care Report highlights "devastating" nature of budget settlement - Randerson

2.09.01pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 8th Jan 2008

The Labour/Plaid budget will hit social care hard.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Finance, Health and Social Care, Jenny Randerson AM has said that the annual report of the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales further illustrates the need for a better local government settlement.

The report shows that there is a widening gap between the best and worst performance in social care in Wales.

Jenny Randerson said: "This report highlights what we have been saying for many weeks, that the abysmal funding settlement for local government is completely inadequate.

"When the Care Inspectorate is highlighting very difficult issues in Social Care, the Welsh Assembly Government needs to be providing more support and resources in order to close this gap. Instead, we are seeing local authorities being given one of the worst budget settlements ever while Labour and Plaid are wasting money on gimmicks.

"Local authorities who are struggling will not be able to improve their services when they are facing real term cuts in their funding. If ever there was a key indicator that the Government need to change their spending priorities, then this is it."

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