PERSONALISATION IN GLASGOW

We continue to monitor this situation closely and are in the process of producing a campaign bulletin aimed at raising awareness of the issues arising out of the cuts being imposed in Glasgow.

We are organising a meeting from 10am to 12 noon on Tuesday 20^th September at the City of Glasgow Branch of UNISON, 4th Floor, 18 Albion Street, Glasgow G1 1LHfor service users, workers and families affected by personalisation in Glasgow, though the meeting will be of interest to people beyond Glasgow as what happens here will be picked up by other local authority areas.

Scotland’s most vulnerable young people under attack as services face the axe

SCOTLAND’s most vulnerable young people are under attack by government cuts as thousands of staff in the community and voluntary sector face redundancy.

UNISON, Scotland’s largest union in the community and voluntary sector, said urgent action must be taken to halt these drastic cuts and urged the country’s politicians not to throw our young people on the scrapheap.

Councils across the country are being hit with the biggest spending cuts in living memory. No service is safe – but one of the hardest hit is services for young people.

This week alone, more than 2,000 workers from the voluntary and community sector have been threatened with redundancy, while others face attacks on their pay and conditions.

One Scottish charity, Quarriers – which was originally set up to look after orphaned and destitute children – yesterday issued 90 days’ notice to all of its 2,000 staff. The move comes as the charity announced plans to cut its staffing budget by £2.5m – almost twice as much as their own figures (£1.3m) claim are required.

Elsewhere, services to vulnerable young people are also under threat as the Cora Foundation – a voluntary organisation that runs three secure units for young people – issued letters to hundreds of workers threatening them with redundancy. This leaves staff at three of the country’s five secure units (St Phillip’s in Plains; St Mary’s Kenmure in Bishopbriggs; and the Good Shepherd in Bishopton) facing the axe. If secure units run by Cora close, then the courts will be left with no option but to send young offenders to institutions like Polmont, at a much greater cost to the taxpayer.

UNISON has also condemned moves by youth justice charity, Includem, which has refused to negotiate with the union and has instead unilaterally imposed a 9.5 per cent pay cut on its staff.

Simon Macfarlane, regional organiser with UNISON, said: “We’re calling on Scotland’s political parties to focus on the real issues in the week ahead and to prioritise putting a stop to these outrageous cuts. We also need voluntary organisations to act in a responsible manner, to engage constructively with UNISON and not to capitalise on the situation to make unwarranted attacks on low-paid workers.

“Our members work hard to provide services that make a huge difference to the lives of young people and cutting them will only store up problems for generations to come. Services for our vulnerable young people are vanishing and, once these services are destroyed, they will take a long time to recover. Surely every young person deserves a fair chance?”

*********************************

The above press release was picked up by a number of media outlets including The Herald

Personalisation of Care Services in Glasgow

About personalisation


Last summer Glasgow City Council started a process called ‘personalisation’ and ‘self-directed support’ across services provided by Social Work. We support the principles of personalisation, which are about providing people with more independence, control and dignity. However, this is not what is happening in Glasgow. Right from the word go, the council was explicit in its ‘working assumption’ that at least 20% savings would be made.

The process is well advanced for learning disability services, but will be rolled out in time to those with physical disability, children with disability, mental health and eventually older people. In the autumn of last year providers of services, mainly charities and private companies, were asked to fill in Self Evaluation Questionnaires (SEQ) on behalf of the people with learning disabilities they support.

Defend Glasgow Services is aware from speaking to union members involved in providing care services, that on many occasions these forms were completed without direct input from the service user (not always possible), their family or guardians or their key worker. The forms were then put through a resource allocation system, which allocates individual budgets to those who need support, resulting in some seeing a cut of almost 80%. Most providers in the city are facing overall budgets cut of 35 to 40%. Additionally, in most cases, the Individual Budget now has to cover provision for activities and services during the day as the council will no longer provide day services to most people with learning disabilities, presenting a further strain on budgets.

There is no formal appeals process to these cuts in budgets. There is an opportunity to have matters looked at again by a Risk Enablement Panel, however, there is little evidence so far that this process is substantially altering the overall picture of massive cuts.

What does this mean for individuals with learning disabilities?

Wide scale loss of sleepover provision: people with learning disabilities often need someone available at night to assist them with toileting, helping them get in and out of bed, and generally to be on hand should anything untoward occur. Having a presence at night also stops vulnerable people being a target for those who would seek to exploit them.

Massive reduction in care packages: People who previously had 24/7 care are now going to have care for only a few hours a day. There is a danger people will become isolated in their homes with no support to lead a full and active life. Beyond this the level of cuts are so severe that independent living will no longer be viable for many and people will be forced to move in with other people in order to pool support, this is completely contrary to personalisation and for many will be a regressive step.

Lost education opportunities: Many people with learning disabilities need support to attend college courses and access other training. Without the money to pay for the support needed they will not be able to go. As a UNISON member put it ‘this is an accident waiting to happen’.

What does this mean for workers?

Workers providing care and support to those with learning disabilities in Glasgow are seeing a range of attacks on their terms and conditions. This is creating widespread concern among care workers. So far we have seen:

• Redundancies;

• Cuts to sick pay schemes;

• Reduction in hours;

• Threats to hourly rate;

The wider cuts agenda

Like us all, people with learning disabilities depend on other public services (e.g. Department of Work and Pensions, Further Education)and indeed often need them more, so as well as their own services being cut they will suffer from reduced public provision. Add to this the onslaught on benefits and the welfare state and it is clear that we are not all in this together. The cuts hit the poor, vulnerable and voiceless the hardest.

What can we do?

• Lobby the Council against these cuts: on 12.30 pm Thursday 28th April 2011, Glasgow City Chambers, George Square

It’s time to unite workers, service users, their families and friends to show mass opposition to these attacks on some of the most vulnerable in our community. The council needs to halt the process, maintain funding and engage in meaningful and genuine consultation with service users.

• Raise the issue with politicians they are chasing you vote for the Scottish Parliament elections and go and see your Councillor or write to them, details available from your library of visit www.writetothem.com

• Ensure someone is sticking up for people with learning disabilities

If they can’t themselves, workers will be restricted in what they can do for clients they support, but there are groups such as Learning Disability Alliance Scotland (http://www.ldascotland.org/ 07920 141823 ) and the Coalition of Carers in Scotland (http://www.carersnet.org/ 01786 825529) that can help those with learning disabilities and their families. There are also a number of advocacy organisations that can help people in these situations, more information on local groups can be found via the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance (http://www.siaa.org.uk/ 0131 260 5380).

• Get active, get organised, get involved. Join a union and join the campaigns!

For more information log on to http://www.thereisabetterway.org/

Living Wage letter to Glasgow City Council

UNISON Regional Organiser, Simon MacFarlane has written to the Chief Executive of Glasgow City Council, George Black, leader of the Council, George Matheson and the Principal Officer of the Council, Kevin Rush to request a meeting to discuss the council's support for a Glasgow Living Wage.

Below we reproduce the text of the letter:

I am writing to ask to meet with you to discuss the Living Wage and its applicability to the voluntary sector. The Living Wage will only be of genuine benefit if it provides a floor across as much of the economy in Glasgow and beyond as possible. It is my view that the Council must use it social, economic and moral leavers to help deliver this.


Being the first Council in Scotland to sign up to the Living Wage is to be commended, however it is time for the Authority to act. Words and a website have their part to play but the Authority needs to put its money where its mouth is.

My job in UNISON is supporting our members who work in the community and voluntary sector. Many or our members work for charities involved in the provision of social care. These organisations have seen their funding to service provision ratio squeezed year on year and as the bulk of the costs in this area are staff this directly impacts on our members.

To give just one example, the Council is the major funder of The Mungo Foundation, many staff here earn below the Living Wage of £7.15, some are only a few pence above the National Minimum Wage, yet instead of wages rising they have been frozen for two years.

As the major funder of The Mungo Foundation you should be calling on them to implement the Living Wage, and crucially you should be funding them to do so.

I would like to meet with you along with some of our members who are affected by these issues to discuss this matter.

I look forward to hearing from you.