Care Charges Consultation Conundrum

At last Thursday’s Executive meeting Cllr Prue Bray, the leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Wokingham Borough Council, asked a question about the Council’s consultation on the proposed changes to charges for day care, home care and respite care.

Cllr Bray said; ‘The Conservative-led Council is currently undertaking a consultation on the proposed changes to charges for day care, home care and respite care, and yet they announced in their budget in February that charges for respite care were increasing from £126 to £575 a week, and that day care would no longer be free.

‘I have always been under the impression that consultation was supposed to happen before the detail was announced, not the other way around. At the time of the Council budget, the Liberal Democrats said that the changes to care charges were both mean-spirited and financially short-sighted. We continue to believe that this is the case.

‘The Conservatives say that vulnerable people are their top priority. They have a very funny way of showing it.’