A CHAOTIC Government department has put the lives of vulnerable people at risk by breaking up adult and children’s services through swingeing changes to the way services will be delivered, the leader of Devon County Council has said.

On Wednesday, March 25, Local Government Minister Steve Reed announced council reorganisation plans affecting Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

His proposals will see county-wide social care services currently run by nine councils split between 16 new unitary authorities.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is due to make a decision on local Government Reorganisation affecting Devon, Torbay and Plymouth this summer.

Devon County Council is proposing a county-wide authority, with Torbay and Plymouth unitary councils remaining in place.

It would be swift to implement, resilient to financial shocks and have the scale to improve vital front-line services, the council says.

Other options being considered are proposals which would see ‘smaller, less resilient councils’ created across the county which would ‘not be financially viable’, the council says.

Devon County Council Leader Julian Brazil said he fears Wednesday’s decision indicates that the ministry is not putting the futures of the country’s most vulnerable communities as its first priority.

Cllr Brazil said: ‘What we have seen today (Wednesday, March 25) is a Government that has ignored some of its own rules in relation to local government reorganisation and broken up vital adult and children’s services into geographies which local people may not recognise, but which may suit their political ambitions.

‘If this happens in Devon, where an independent Commissioner has recently recognised the improvement journey children’s services are on, and warned against breaking them up, some of the most vulnerable people we care for face a much more uncertain future’.

A decision on changes to Sussex and Brighton has been delayed because of fears social care services may be adversely affected by breaking them up and rural identities may be lost.

’It is small relief but there appears to be some recognition at MHCLG that breaking up social care departments carries with it significant risk’, Cllr Brazil said.

‘I sincerely hope that is thoughtfully considered when Devon’s proposals are risk assessed, but the chaos with which this exercise has been handled does not fill me with hope’, he added.