Haringey’s Liberal Democrat councillors have criticised the Labour-run council after controversial revelations that it plans to spend much-needed extra money for the troubled Social Services department on improving its media manipulation and spin doctoring, rather than on frontline services.

The plans, now revealed in a document leaked to Liberal Democrat councillor Lynne Featherstone, state that:

“In June, the Executive agreed additional resources for Social Services. These will be used to audit and improve all Social Services publications and website information. Media plans will be prepared for key milestones such as the Star Ratings, PAF tables and the publication of the Climbie Inquiry report.”

The leaked document is the council’s redrafted ‘Draft Corporate Communications Strategy,’ dated 3rd October.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“It is deeply depressing that Labour councillors seem more concerned with trying to spin their way out of trouble than in improving frontline services. The lessons of Victoria Climbie are that Haringey needs to sort out its social services department – not just try to spin things better in future.”