MP warns cuts threaten help for carers (From The Oxford Times)

MP warns cuts threaten help for carers

6:00pm Saturday 31st July 2010 in

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DAVID Cameron’s Big Society vision could be hit by County Hall cuts to organisations which support carers, Banbury MP Tony Baldry has warned.

The Conservative MP said the Big Society policies drawn up by Prime Minister Mr Cameron, the MP for Witney, recognised the importance of volunteers and carer centres in delivering key services.

But such organisations were now facing cuts in funding from Oxfordshire County Council, said Mr Baldry.

He said: “I’m concerned at what appears to be a potential and, I suspect, entirely unintended conflict between the Coalition Government’s desire to promote the Big Society and the coalition’s necessity to cut the budget deficit.”

He said Oxfordshire’s carers’ centres relied on both volunteers and paid staff.

But he feared the Conservative cabinet at County Hall was proposing to withdraw funding from the centres, with carers instead having to rely on a call centre, outside the county, to obtain assistance and advice.

Mr Baldry, who is co-chariman of the Parliamentary group for carers, was speaking at a meeting of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

He added: “There doesn’t seem to have been any real discussion with existing carer centres as to the number of carers that they’re already reaching.

“The Banbury Carers’ Centre has now been running for 20 years, reaching out to more and more carers in the north and west of Oxfordshire.”