Supported living carers weigh up strike action over service cuts

Care workers will weigh up strike action over a plan to cut a supported living service which elderly users and their families say they rely on.

Health chiefs agreed to axe the service — which helps almost 40 people, including some with dementia — to help cover a £42.5m budget gap.

The decision is expected to save £2.8m — but one service user, Judith Marshall, said: “The carers are not going to be there for me to be able to lead the quality of life that I’ve got at this moment in time.”

The 73-year-old, who played badminton for Team GB at the Olympics in 1972, said: “I was very sporty, very active, and now only half my body works. I ended up in a spinal unit for six months.”

She is active again thanks to doctors, nurses and “in particular the carers”.

The Partick-based mum, whose children William and Kareena have played hockey for Scotland, said: “I go shopping on buses, I go to the gym, I get help at Scotstoun swimming pool, but that is because I have had carers who got to know me.

“From my point of view, if this all goes ahead, I’m going to be in trouble.”

The GMB union held a rally at Woodside Halls today, where care staff and families showed their support for the service.

In a show of hands, workers indicated they would be in favour of taking industrial action over the cut.

Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy is hoping to raise the issue with the First Minister on Thursday. She said: “It’s short-sighted and it fails to fully understand the value that this service brings to people.”

One carer, Susan Colclough, who has worked in the service for nine years, said: “It is going to have a devastating effect on our service users.

"Mainstream cannot and will not meet the needs of these service users.

“As a worker, we will get redeployed elsewhere within Glasgow City Council. We are fighting for the service users, not for ourselves.

"Most of our clients don’t have families and we need to be their voice.”

Glasgow’s integration joint board (IJB), which directs the health and social care partnership (HSCP), receives funding from both the council and NHS.

Officials drew up a raft of savings to cover the £42.5m funding shortfall, which they said is a result of “unprecedented” financial pressures.

They added the number of users of the supported living service has declined significantly, and users would be assessed to ensure their needs are met by other services.

John Hogan, whose mum Margaret Hogan has used the service for around five years, said: “It was clearly identified that as she has dementia that mainstream care was no longer suitable for her.

“My mother’s condition has deteriorated markedly. If there isn’t a supported living service, she wouldn’t be suitable for mainstream care, it just wouldn’t meet her needs.”

His mum has two carers, four times a day, 365 days a year. “It’s a quality service, you couldn’t fault the staff,” he said.

Catriona Smith’s mum Mary Hawker, 93, lives in the north of the city and is visited by carers four times per day. She said: “My mum does not have dementia but she is very elderly, and it is very important for her to have continuity of care.

“If you asked her, do you need tablets today? She wouldn’t be able to tell you. It’s about the relationships that have built up over the last five years for my mum. She can rely on them and I can rely on them.”

She added: “It has not been communicated effectively at all. We heard through the carers themselves, it was left to them to inform the families until we got official word through recorded delivery.

“I think in the long-term if this service is cut, my mother will end up going into a nursing home.”

The son of one service user added: “The mainstream system wasn’t helping her. They would be in for 10 or 15 minutes, after that she would be out wandering, soiling herself, getting lost, turning up at the doctors.

“Now she has a system, she has regularity. She knows the faces. She feels supported, she feels secure.”

Families fear health bosses have not been advertising the service so the number of users was reduced. However, a spokeswoman for the HSCP said: “Demand isn’t in the remit of the operational service — referrals are made by hospital/intermediate care.”

She added: “It is understandable for families who are unable to look after their loved ones themselves to feel concerned. However, the cost to deliver this service is no longer justifiable when we have other alternative means of doing so.

“We have written to our current service users, and they have our assurance they will be assessed to ensure their needs are met, whether through our mainstream Care at Home Service or alternative care and support, if deemed necessary. Family members will be kept informed.”