Tory and Lib Dem failure to prioritise children's Health

At tonight's Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Panel members were supposed to get a full report on the important issue of the scrutiny of children's health. The Tory and Liberal Democratic Chairs of the Housing and Community Care and Education and Children's Services Panels were tasked with completing a major piece of work on the current state of children's health. A large amount of resources, such as numerous reports, large amounts of council officers time, a whole evening of questioning members of the public, professionals, parents and academics was spent attempting to get an accurate picture of the health of children. The scrutiny which has taken over one to year to complete and is still unfinished had the main meeting in October with a target of making recommendations to the Cabinet in March to assist in the health and well being of children. As the Lead Councillor I looked forward to the results and recommendations of this lengthy.

To my surprise the Tory Chair of the Panel admitted that he had not met with the Lib Dem Chair of Housing and Community Care as she was "too busy" to deal with children's health. The Tory Chair admitted that this is not a satisfactory situation and that the conclusions will now not be ready for over another year.

This proves that the Tories cannot be trusted to run Reading. If they cannot get a scrutiny right and waste extortionate amounts of money, running into tens of thousands of pounds on a process that will not be completed how can they run large budgets of Children's Services and the Environment and promise a zero council tax increase.

As for the Lib Dems, I understand the position of the Lib Dem Chair is that she cannot commit to completing this work as she is standing as a councillor in Reading East and a Parliamentary Candidate in Reading West. I know that this is a heck of a workload and she has claimed to be the hardest working councillor in Reading, but surely she could prioritise the scrutiny of children's health.

One thing is for certain that I, as Lead Councillor for Children's Services will continue to work that all children are safe, educated to a high standard and their well-being is enhanced.