SNP/Lib Dems Cut 60% of Home Helps

When the Council proposed the closure of 22 schools and 4 community centres earlier this year there was nothing short of public outcry. Rallies descended on the city chambers, parents united to set up campaigning websites, children made posters and banners as the communities around them joined together to stand up for their future. Parent power won in the end and the Council was forced to go back to the drawing board.



Without the experience to stand up to the council officials or the courage to go to the Scottish Government and make the case for more money, this SNP Lib Dem council has opted yet again to make cuts to frontline services. This time, some of Edinburgh’s most vulnerable and frail people will suffer silently and there will be no march down the High Street to protest.



On the 12th November the City Council began a review of the 4000 people across the city who receive a home help. Within 3 weeks they’d reviewed 140 people. 40% of these people had their services reduced. 21% had their help stopped completely.



Home helps offer vital support to elderly and vulnerable people across the city. Whether it’s a couple of hours a week to get key chores down and messages bought, or a couple of hours a day to help people get washed and mobile, they offer great comfort and security. For many people they’re not just workers, but companions who brighten up what might otherwise be a dull and very lonely day.



To stealthily reduce and remove home helps from Edinburgh’s most vulnerable like this is an absolute disgrace, and for what purpose? Cutting home based services like this is both naïve and short-sighted. The cost of ensuring people can stay in the comfort of their own homes for as long as possible is significantly less than that of residential care.



What appears to be a short term gain just to balance the books and deliver a council tax freeze could well be at a great cost in a year or two years time as residential and medical bills soar.



This administration reeks of a council in crisis. An Ebenezer Scrooge pinching pennies without a thought to who might suffer as a consequence. As the reserves fill with gold again, everything around us begins to crumble.



For the SNP Lib Dem Council to propose a raft of school closures without proper consultation or thought as to how it might impact on local communities was naïve and careless. To instigate a review of home based services where the early results show over 60% of people’s care has been reduced, or stopped completely is sleikit.



This Council administration simply must learn to stand up to it’s officials and demand cuts in bureaucracy before cuts in services and it most do it in an open and transparent way. Picking on the most vulnerable is cowardly in the extreme.

Written by George Foulkes MSP and Published in the Edinburgh Evening News; 2nd of Janurary 2008