Wirral Council defends its mandate for changes to respite care

Feb 9 2011 by Matt Hurst, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL Council launched a defence of its controversial decision to close respite centres and transfer care to the private and voluntary sector.

Responding to Wirral News’ front page comment on January 26, which questioned the mandate to change said to have been delivered by the Your Future: Be a Part of It consultation, head of adult social services, Howard Cooper said: “I don’t think we would dispute the numbers but one of the things done was to add the number against to the number expressing ‘no firm opinion’.

“If you had taken the number in favour as a percentage of those expressing a firm opinion, it would have looked a great deal more positive.

“The numbers presented could have been done in a different way, and it would have shown of those people expressing a firm opinion, the majority were in favour of the steps taken.”

On January 26, Wirral News pointed out that, although 48.8% of respondents agreed with the proposal to transfer care to the third sector, 36.5% disagreed and14.6% held ‘no strong opinion’, putting those in favour in the minority.