A Record of Action….A Promise of More!

• Cornwall’s Adult Social Services budget for elderly and disabled people has been increased by 48% (£38 million) since 2005 under Lib Dem leadership, supporting 33, 000 vulnerable adults.
• Whilst some Councils elsewhere have cut social care to cover just those with ‘critical’ needs, Cornwall has continued free care at home for all those with ‘substantive’ needs.
• Last year Liberal Democrats in Cornwall won our campaign to persuade Government that the Cornish NHS has been underfunded for years – leading to an increase of £94million for local NHS services.
• Creating a single Council for Cornwall is saving over £70 million over the next four years in reduced bureaucracy and over 200 fewer Councillors – allowing this increased investment in adult care to continue. We have already earmarked another £7 million increase for adult care this year from these and other savings, whilst keeping Council Tax £175 below the national average.

The Lib Dem Guarantee

• We will continue to increase funding above inflation for adult social services to improve support for elderly and people with disabilities in Cornwall, and we guarantee to maintain support at home to those with substantive needs in addition to the legal requirement to support critical needs.
  
• 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 to bring together Health and Social Services in Cornwall to cut waste and guarantee seamless support from home to hospital and back again.
  
• We will campaign for rapid Government changes to bring Cornwall’s share of national health and social services funding up to at least the national average.
  

Compare the difference!

• The Conservative Government introduced funding formulas in the 1980s (still in place today) that left Cornwall’s health funding well below the national average. Patients have suffered, as there has been less money to spend on their care than in the rest of the UK, with less funding for essential equipment, fewer staff, and poorer facilities than the rest of the country.
• Despite the fact that Cornwall has two of the most deprived districts in the country, and all wards in the county are in the poorest 10% in the country and we have a rapidly ageing population, the Labour Government has frozen Cornwall’s Supporting People grant for the next three years – a real terms cut which will hit vulnerable adults across Cornwall.
• Although Labour have now admitted that NHS funding for Cornwall is still £56 million below what it needs to be this year alone, their policy determining how much extra money we get means we may never catch up. Meanwhile health and social services elsewhere in the country have a Government budget up to 30% more than the Government say they need.