The Conservatives on Surrey County Council have slammed the Lib Dems for an ‘absurd and waste of time’ Council motion, where, according to Mary Angell, the Cabinet Member for Children, ‘accuracy and truth are cast to one side’ so that ‘Lib Dem members, virtuous with indignation, can spout totally inaccurate nonsense’.
At Tuesday’s Council meeting, the Lib Dem Motion’s proposer failed to even correctly name the programme she was denigrating, using the Government’s ‘Troubled Families Agenda’ rather than the more sensitive ‘Family Support Programme’, which takes into account the wishes of families who may be uncomfortable with being labelled ‘troubled’.
Having been praised by The Department for Communities and Local Government for being the leading two tier area in the country, we subsequently received a letter from them saying they were “struck by the depth of knowledge, obvious ability and determination of all those that we met to make a significant difference for the lives of your most challenged and challenging families.” This appears totally at odds with the Lib Dems’ accusations.
Mary Angell, Surrey’s Cabinet Member for Children, added:
‘Listening to the Lib Dems, you wouldn’t think Surrey are leading the way with this programme. The objectives of our proposal is to turn around the lives of up to 7,000 families who present a wider range of multiple complex needs through an integrated approach to delivering services.
The cabinet papers set out the detailed business case, but unsurprisingly the Lib Dems failed to read the facts. They had at least five opportunities to attend meetings and read agenda papers, but sadly, they opted to misrepresent all the excellent work done by our officers instead.
The only positive thing I can say about this ill-conceived motion is that it gives me the opportunity of a public platform on which I can thank and congratulate the team for their vision, immense hard work and dedication to bringing this difficult project to life, and making a very real difference to the lives of families in Surrey. ‘