An open letter to Cllrs Sean Anstee and Andrew Western,

I write to you both as an experienced home carer to my disabled wife.

28 years of watching her waste away with Parkinson’s disease and living in the real world of care, as opposed to the virtual one, that you councillors live in whilst paying lip service to the real issues.

I squirmed in my chair as I heard member after member on the video stand up in the council chamber debating the social care amendment, each one of you failing to take any responsibility for the inadequacies of social care in Trafford, instead blaming past and present governments for the underfunding of the sector.

Your parties both made piecemeal statements about “working together” and putting party politics aside to "tackle the issues".

I felt sick to my stomach knowing that no such approach will ever happen.

The fact remains that Trafford and Manchester were slated recently for making little progress by regulators, especially on the lack of movement to integrate social care with health services.

Be honest and admit that your council is not fit for purpose when it comes to social care. The facts speak for themselves.

You have sat back while people have suffered, care homes have closed and others have gone into special measures.

You have established a cruel policy of paying those recipients of social care at a lower rate than the commissioned rate if they opt for direct payments to arrange their own care, yet thus saving the council thousands of pounds.

Where and how can we acquire care services for up to £1 per hour less than the commissioned rate — £13.11 per hour as opposed to £14.13?

Where and how can we recruit personal care assistants when that direct payment figure is then cut to only £8 per hour, saving the council £3 per hour for the care it should provide itself.

To add insult to injury, when periodically the direct payment amount is increased, then you have enforced a system whereby the care recipient on direct payments has to request a review of their personal care needs, in order to establish if they qualify for any cost of care increase.

This is scandalous.

I leave you with a warning and some financial facts.

The warning is that as a carer who is sick and tired of Trafford making excuses for its rank failings, I am making it my own personal mission to force councillors to stop talking and get acting.

I am in the process of booking media interviews and writing articles on social care failings in Trafford, and won’t stop until real results are seen.

As for your excuses of it being a national problem and "not yours entirely", I remind you of some of the budget figures you have set last year, which clearly show little priority for adult social care, but plenty of funding if you are able bodied and want to jog off down to your local leisure centre.

This is something my wife has been unable and will never be able to do.

I am formally requesting a meeting with you both to discuss my concerns.

I will also be forming my own ‘Action against inadequate social care in Trafford’ group.

Mr F Varden

Partington