Capital in meltdown as cash crisis now threatens to hit elderly

Published on Wednesday 22 August 2007 12:43

View the full list of 122 schools and service hit by strike here

CARE services for elderly and disabled residents in Edinburgh face being massively reduced as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

Officials have warned councillors they need to take drastic action to combat the authority's multi-million-pound cash crisis.

Under the plans, there would be fewer care home places, more elderly patients stuck in hospitals, and new costs for people with learning disabilities or their families.

Charities today blasted the proposals as "short-sighted" and "ridiculous". The measures drawn up by officials include:

• Closing one care home just months after starting work on building four new ones.

• Cutting by half the number of new care home places paid for by the council.

• Restricting home care services to just people in life-threatening situations.

• Charging people with learning disabilities for day care services.

• Cutting the number of benefits advisers by half.

To help bring spending under control, a ban on overtime and the use of agency workers has now been introduced throughout the health and social care department, and around 90 job vacancies will not be filled this year.

The closure of a care home would reduce the number of available beds in the city by 40, at a time when more homes are being built to combat a major shortage.

On top of that, officials want to restrict the number of new care home placements they pay for - both in council-run and private facilities - by 148 this year.

Both these measures would lead to a problem with "bed blocking" - where patients are stuck in hospitals with nowhere to go.

Relatives who want to place their loved-ones in a care home may have to go to the private sector, at a cost of up to 800 a week.

The council's services for people living in their own home - such as preparing meals or collecting prescriptions - would be restricted to just those with a dire need for help, likely to lead to more hospital admissions.

There are fears that the council's action could turn the clock back three years, when there were so many elderly patients with nowhere to go that they could have filled every bed in St John's Hospital.

John Matheson, director of finance with NHS Lothian, said the proposed cuts would "inevitably" impact on bed blocking.

David Manion, chief executive of Age Concern Scotland, said: "We view the proposals in Edinburgh to cut back health and social care services with alarm.

"We have been concerned that the approach across Scotland to reduce council tax levels would result in cuts to bread and butter services that many older people rely on."

Lindsay Scott, a spokesman for Help the Aged in Scotland, condemned the measures as being "short-sighted".

"We have an ageing population, and this is an area that should be expanding, not contracting," Mr Scott said.

"The cutbacks would result in greater strain on the health sector, and could even lead to suffering for older people. I would urge councillors to look seriously at these proposals and to reconsider them."

Councillors will decide at a public meeting tomorrow whether to adopt the officials' recommendations. Lib Dem and SNP councillors met separately last night to discuss the proposals and were due to hold joint talks today to thrash out a coalition stance.

But officials believe the measures are necessary to avoid a departmental overspend of well over 5 million this year.

Across the entire council, budget predictions show there would be a 25m overspend in 2007-8 without any cost-cutting - up from an initial figure of 10m.

However, with measures already adopted since the looming financial crisis was made public in June, and the new proposals revealed today, officials believe they can reduce the black hole to just 2.84m.

Margaret Hurcombe, manager at FAIR - an Edinburgh advice and information service for people with learning disabilities and their families - said the cuts would "knock people sideways".

The council proposals also include charging for day care services, currently offered free to 1000 people with learning disabilities across Edinburgh.

David Barraclough, chairman of the city branch of Enable Scotland, a charity which campaigns for people with learning disabilities,said: "This is ridiculous. Charging is something that has been looked at elsewhere in Scotland, and I was always able to tell my colleagues that Edinburgh had a good system that was free.

"Introducing a charge would be very difficult for people, some of whom are on benefits and make just 15 a week."

The council's director of finance, Donald McGougan, said: "The director of health and social care is currently reviewing all service areas to identify further measures to bring expenditure into line with budget."

Ways to cut costs

Actions and proposals to reduce the city council’s health and social care budget black hole.

Actions now in place:

• Ban on staff overtime

• Ban on use of agency staff, except when critical

• No hiring of staff to fill vacancies

• Restriction of home care services to residents with “ critical” or “ substantial” requirements

Proposals:

• Closing a care home, with the resulting loss of 40 beds

• Halving the number of new care home places purchased by the council

• Restricting home care services to residents with a “ life and limb” requirement

• Introduce charges for day care services for people with learning disabilities

• Halving the number of welfare rights service staff

Teachers back fight to save nurseries

TEACHERS have hit out at plans to close nine city nurseries, claiming the council is putting cash before children's education.

Although the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, supports closing primaries and secondaries because of falling rolls, it is less convinced by the council's argument over pre-school children.

It claims the council is taking advantage of Care Commission rules that allow partner provider nurseries - run by the private sector, but in receipt of public money - to give children less time with nursery teachers.

Nursery teachers typically earn more than carers or learning assistants, but the EIS says they are vital to the education of young people.

Colin Mackay, Edinburgh secretary of the EIS, said: "In primary and secondary schools there continues to be more places than bums to fill the seats, this is not true when it comes to pre-school children in Edinburgh.

"It's a retrograde step to be downsizing nursery provision. It is true to say that if you get nursery education right, everything else in a young person's life follows."

Parents at Westfield Court Nursery School, in Gorgie, are among those fighting to keep their children in a council-run facility.

Sharon Thomson, 37, a project office analyst for HBoS, has found her daughter Eildh, four, is far happier since she moved her from a partner provider nursery to Westfield Court. "She absolutely loves going there. I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Eildh. She was in a partner provider nursery and I didn't realise how miserable she was. We used to have screaming matches every morning."

Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, the city's education, children and families leader, said: "Although not all of the partner provider nurseries employ nursery teachers, they are inspected to exactly the same standards as council-run establishments.

"This review aims to increase the number of children attending new or refurbished buildings and who therefore receive a first class education."

A rally was to take place today outside the City Chambers.

View the full list of 122 schools and service hit by strike here