EDINBURGH’S MOST VULNERABLE RESIDENTS
BEING SOLD TO THE LOWEST BIDDER
STOP SOCIAL CARE CUTS AND TENDERING
Between 2004 and 2008 the City of Edinburgh Council slashed its ‘Supporting People’ budget by 20%.
Despite this they have now launched an unprecedented attack on the vital services many people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health conditions and hearing impairments depend on.
On the 27th October the Council made public its plans to sell of the services of 777 people to the lowest bidder. The move aims to wipe out several local voluntary sector organisations that provide good quality specialised services and replace then with 8 companies, the biggest winners being low cost, large scale private companies with questionable track records.
However, the Council has a legal obligation to allow service-users to ask for a ‘Direct Payment’ enabling them to choose there service provider.
As the full scale of the Council’s disastrous plans became clear hundreds of people set about doing just that.
The Council’s response?
Block service-users from getting Direct Payments.
However, in the face of a massive outcry and public protest from service-users, parents/carers and support staff the Council appeared to be backing down.
They now seem to be saying they will allow some Direct Payments to be processed, enabling service-users to choose who supports them in their daily lives.
A victory for Edinburgh’s most vulnerable in their battle against the City Council?
Or is their a catch?
Those familiar with the City of Edinburgh Council will have guessed it.
There is a catch.
The Council intends to set a new rate for Direct Payments that is in line with the ‘most competetive tender bids’ it has received.
So people can choose to have a Direct Payment and therefore will be able to choose their service.
However, they will only be able to choose from the cheapest options on offer;
Low cost, large scale private companies with poor track records.
This is what the City of Edinburgh Council calls choice.
Many current service-users want a Direct Payment so they can continue to work with their support staff with which they have built up good relationships on a daily basis over a number of years.
The Council will not let this happen. The funding rates they have set will not be able to pay for good quality support services. They are intent on cutting costs whatever the human cost.
We must not allow this to happen.
Some of you may have noticed that the Council was not so worried about cutting costs when it bailed out its “arms length” property companies to the tune of £70million.
We have to make them change their priorities.
Otherwise, in years to come, we will be watching TV documentaries, reading newspaper articles about how appalling these services have become, how they are wrecking lives, as has been the case in care of the elderly in many places.
And we will wonder how this was allowed to happen.
We must act now before its too late.
To find out more or to get involved go to
www.swanedinburgh.org.uk or www.ldascotland.org
Produced by Edinburgh Support Worker’s Action Network
Contact us at swanedinburgh@yahoo.co.uk
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