A Record of Action….A Promise of More!

• Cornwall Council provides services to 33,000 vulnerable adults and supports 100,000 children.
• Cornwall County Council was one of the first eight Councils to sign up to the ‘Every Disabled Child Matters’ Charter which brought additional funding for parent carers and has improved the lives of disabled children all over Cornwall. In March 2008 we won £5 million of extra funding for disabled and vulnerable groups across the county.
• In 2009 Cornwall County Council was awarded Beacon Status for its work tackling child poverty.
• In November 2008 we won £60,000 of investment in childcare to help parents who want to get back in to work by funding childcare.
• Our programme of targeted advice and education has seen the reduction of teenage pregnancies since 2005, now nearly 25% below the national average.
• We have opened fifteen new Children’s Centres across Cornwall. In addition to play activities for children the Centres also offer support for parents such as access to childcare and information about training and employment and parenting support services. We are also upgrading play areas in towns across the County.

The Lib Dem Guarantee

• All families in Cornwall will be able to access a local Children’s Centre facility by 2010.

• We will invest in new or modernised children’s play facilities in every Community Network Area.

• We will extend free public transport to carers when travelling with the person they care for, anywhere in Cornwall (in addition to the existing free travel scheme for people with disabilities).

• We will continue to increase the share of council spending going to children with disabilities.

• We will campaign for rapid Government changes to bring Cornwall’s share of national funding for vulnerable children up to at least the national average

Compare the difference!

• Under both Labour and Conservative Governments, the formula for funding Cornwall’s support for vulnerable people has been held far below the national average. In 2006/07 Cornwall Council received 23% less per head than the average council, and less than a third of that which some other authorities received. As such Cornwall is in the bottom 11% of government funding per person in the whole country.

• In 2005, before the Liberal Democrats took control of the County Council, spending on social care in Cornwall was the lowest of any County Council in the country. By 2008 our increases in social care spending meant that Cornwall had caught up with the average, vastly improving services – and by cutting bureaucracy and waste, we have still kept Council Tax £175 below the national average despite the lack of Government funding support.