Services
News release
Review of services to elderly pledged
West Lothian Council is pledging a pioneering review of all its services to senior citizens.
A wide-ranging consultation exercise ? believed to be the first of its kind ? has been approved to meet the needs of elderly residents.
" We will be consulting individuals, national agencies and local groups on all aspects of services delivered by West Lothian Council to the elderly," said Council Leader Peter Johnston.
" We want our senior citizens to be at the very heart of a decision-making process that will help reshape a whole range of our services.
" We want our senior citizens to be as mobile as possible. We want them to enjoy the best quality of life in their own homes with appropriate support where necessary. We want to provide the best quality of care for those who need it and we want the elderly to be safe and secure in their own communities.
" We are also determined to put our senior citizens at the very heart of a decision-making process that will help reshape a whole range of our services to the elderly."
Councillor Johnston added: " We are not looking to cut services. Every penny the council spends on services to the elderly will be maintained. However, we do not have unlimited additional resources and we will be asking our senior citizens to tell us what their priorities are and how they feel their money should be spent.
" We are looking to complete this exercise towards the end of this year. This will allow us to feed in the results into our budget-making process for next February.
" The results of this consultation will reshape our services to the elderly for the new financial year, beginning in April 2009. We are going into this exercise with no fixed objectives other than seeking to deliver the very best for the elderly. Nothing is ruled in and nothing is ruled out.
" To my knowledge this is the first time any council has undergone such an initiative. Throughout the process we want the users of our services and the community to be at the heart of decision-making.
" This will now be referred to the Partnership and Resources Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel to determine how best to carry out the consultation."
Date: 19-08-2008
