Cllr. Roland Domleo - Adult Services Portfolio Holder

A team of 10 councillors called the Cabinet will govern  the new unitary Cheshire East Council. Each councillor has a portfolio or area of responsibility with Councillor Roland Domleo responsible for Adult Services.

Roland Domleo has been a councillor for over 24 years. Always interested in politics he  was first elected to the former Congleton Borough Council in 1976 at the age of 29. He was Chairman of Industrial Development and then Housing, going on to be Mayor in 1988/89. He stood down as a councillor in 1990 but returned in 1999. In 2002 he became the Leader of Congleton Borough Council, a position he held for seven years until the council was abolished in early 2009. During his time as Leader, Congleton Borough Council moved from a "weak" council rating to a "good" council, falling just short of an "excellent" label.

Born in Somerset but raised in Bristol, Roland has lived in Congleton town since 1973 . He has been married to Christine since 1969 and has two grown-up daughters, Rebecca and Philippa, who have both come back to Congleton to live after university and working elsewhere. Roland is a self-employed industrial noise control engineer.

What are your priorities within this portfolio?
Responsibility for Adult Services covers a very wide span and includes the needs of people who are older; have learning difficulties, mental health problems, those in need of support because of drug and alcohol abuse and victims of domestic violence. It also includes supporting the people who care for these people. These people are not our “clients” but are our “customers”. I have been very moved by the love and devotion shown by the spouses and families who look after people who need constant care.

My priorities are to ensure that the support given to people who need it is what they themselves want, rather than what we have to offer. That is what “Personalisation” and Individual Budgets” are all about. It is putting the customer first.

What is your main message to the public?
Having a new all-purpose "unitary" council that provides all services, it will be easier to provide joined-up services. Under the previous “two-tier system”, the Borough Council provided housing and leisure activities and the County Council provided social care. Whilst valiant efforts were made to try to make these all work together, it is obvious that to have them all under one roof will make it easier for the “left hand” and the “right hand” to work together for the benefit of our customers.

What will present the greatest opportunities within your portfolio?
The former Cheshire County Council  worked hard on a project called "Social Care Redesign" which switches the emphasis from "what have we got to offer" to "what does the individual person need". The person's needs could well be something that is not currently on offer. It also changes the way people are received into the social care system so that they do not go from “pillar to post” filling in new forms at every stage. The former Cheshire County Council ran a pilot and so learnt of the benefits and the pitfalls to be avoided, which helped greatly when Cheshire East Council started to roll out the new system in July 2009.

I also have an opportunity to engage more with the many organisations and charities that work in this field. As I only have to cover half of the county, and as I live in Congleton town which is in the middle of Cheshire East, I have been able to get out and visit many of these organisations and meet many of our customers.  I have been made very welcome and I have learnt so much that cannot be gleaned from written reports.

Why have I taken on this role?
Having been a Borough Councillor for many years, I wanted something very different and so I asked for this portfolio. It is all about very vulnerable people who on the whole are not seen and not heard of by the general population. I have a real opportunity to improve the quality of life of so many people who do not enjoy the lifestyle that most of us take for granted. My parents are in their late eighties and though they live far away I can see how their needs are sometimes met and sometimes are not met. My wife has walking difficulties, and an electric scooter lives in the back of my car so I have seen first-hand some of the difficulties faced by people with a physical disability, despite the Disability Discrimination Act being 10 years old.

How can residents contact you about any of the services that Cheshire East will provide?
By e-mail roland.domleo@cheshireeast.gov.uk or by phone at home on 01260 278745. I am very easy to find in the phone book!