Swan Edinburgh Meeting 15.11.09

Swan Edinburgh Second Meeting 15.11.09

We had presence from Garvald Edinburgh, Learning Disability Alliance, Unite union, Inclusion Alliance and Thistle Foundation.

* Update: First Ian Hood gave an update on the current situation re: tendering.
777 people are affected by the first phase of the tendering. That process aimed to help the council to make saving on their budget. There was almost no consultation with the service users with regard to the tendering. Only 8 service users were consulted in only two meetings back at the end of last year.
170 applied for Direct payment only 70 were awarded and the rest around 100 were in the process before the Council Decision to freeze DP.
The main concern is what choice people have in deciding about care provision.
Furthermore what about people who do not want or can not have Direct Payments. What choice do they have? We hope to have a shift in the council decision regarding the Direct payment and then challenge the Council about rates, the issue of choice etc.
If we have most of the hours that were up for tendering shifted to Direct Payment it could consequently stop the tendering, as there would not be much to tender for.
Many service users from most of the organisations who are affected by the tendering have sent a letter of intention to receive Direct Payment. The transition between the bidder and the current provider is also expected to be very problematic for service users and support workers. The rate that was given for Direct payment is not sufficient for people’s needs and quality of provision.
At the Council on Thurs meeting there will be a motion from the labour, and deputations from parents, organisations and service users. We aim to have a variety of voices to attack the issue from all angle. The Petition will also be presented at the Council meeting.

* We should try to have as much people as we can at the Demo on thurs. We are also allowed in the European room at the chambers where it will be possible to listen to the debate on the tendering paper..

* Unite member advised all support workers who are affected by the tendering to join a union so they can get legal advice to defend their employee rights with the Tupe legislation. It is thought that if enough staff assert their rights under TUPE the contracts will not be viable for the winning providers.
We will aim to contact the unions to see if we can get more support workers to join.

* We will organise a contact sheet to have support workers from a wide range of organisations to join our campaign.

* We will organise a stall for Mon, Tues between 12 and 6pm. We will continue with the petition and hand over leaflets to inform the public about our campaign. We agreed to have the writing “People are not for sale” in front of the desk.


* Next Meeting on Sunday 7pm.