WITH readers becoming increasingly concerned over the closure of five of Wirral's care and respiste homes, The Globe asked Conservative council leader Jeff Green to give his own views why the authority is taking such a course of action.

Next week, leader of the opposition Labour group, Steve Foulkes, will repond.

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By Jeff Green, leader of Wirral Council

DID you know that around one person in eight is a carer? Often, with a complicated benefits system, the state makes life harder for them and not easier.

It's a world the rest of us never really see - a daily battle with disability living allowance, eligibility criteria, care assessments, respite breaks, SENCOs, OTs, and other jargon.

I made clear at a meeting with carers on Monday that my number one priority is the care of vulnerable people.

In particular, I absolutely recognise the crucial contribution carers make not just to the lives of their loved ones but to everything that we do as a council.

The work that full-time carers or those with little extra help do is unbelievable.

They risk their own health. They battle with the red tape and bureaucracy.

They give up work and, too often, they often give up much of life.

And they do it to ensure that someone they love stays at home rather than going to an institution.

We don't do enough to help them. And only one-in-five people get any kind of break or 'respite' from the caring they give.

We have pledged that respite care in Wirral will in the future be delivered to exactly the same and wherever possible to a higher standard.

No one will be left without respite support. In this borough, respite care has, for too long been the poor relation within Adult Social Services, itself a department that has been engulfed with problems, budget crises and specific examples of people we failed.

And then, to cap it all, an independent inspection report that said Wirral Council had failed the very people who depended on us the most at the very point when the money ran out and the debts we faced as a country threatened to overshadow all we do.

I believe we must put more money in the hands of carers and those in need of care rather than in the hands of the council. Helping carers is the best way to help those they are caring for.

We're rolling out personal budgets to the people who receive care.

This will give people and their carers greater choice and control over the social care services they receive.

So, instead of the council telling someone when and where they can go, we are going to let the carer and their loved one decide.

Instead of just five homes around the borough, we will open up the choice to many others.

They may be able to choose a home nearer to where they live or work. They will be able to choose a home that offers a particular kind of activity or events that will be valued by the person who needs care.

Under our plans they could even choose to have a holiday instead.

Not a single person under our plan will be left out - every person will have a dedicated liaison worker to help them make the choices that are right for them and to avoid them being pushed around different departments in the council.

Every person who currently has care in a council-run building will receive care from an independent or charitable home, at no cost to them.

As a council we have not communicated effectively enough with carers in the past and this has been particularly highlighted as an issue since December - and I absolutely have apologised for that.

I will make sure that the council works harder to work more closely with carers in the future design of all that we do to support their loved ones.

For too long, people in Wirral have not had the level of services they are paying for. I want services to be better, at a cost we can afford.

I want everyone to have more information about the services they receive and, if they want, to have more say in how those services are provided.