About 150 people, service users and carers, protested today noisily in front of Edinburgh City Chambers against the privatisation of the care and support services. The final decision on the competitive tendering processes is planned to be made on 19th of November. The protesters from SWAN, the Learning Disability Alliance and Save our Homecare Services called to stop the selling off of this vital service to private companies.
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According the the Learning Disability Alliance Scotland, Edinburgh council has competitively tendered care and support services for 777 people. The previously advised option for Direct Payment to the support users have been frozen in October, apparently to not upset the tendering process. 170 people asked for Direct Payment so they could stay with their existing provider.
The Edinburgh Support Workers Action Network, the Learning Disability Alliance and the Save our Homecare Services Campaign called on the Edinburgh Council:
- stop blocking Direct Payments to social care service users
- guarantee funding at a reasonable level that allows service users choice
- stop the selling off of vital services to low cost private companies through its tendering processes.
The protest, which started at 4.30pm, was noisy, colourfull and empowering. The police stood at the entrance to the City Chambers but otherwise did not seem to intervene. Signatures were collected for a petition and leaflets handed out to passers-by. The protesters shouted "No more lies", "Direct Payments Now!" and similar.
Comments
Re: Protest against the privatisation of Edinburgh's social care
By Anonymous
As one of the people affected by Edinburgh Council decision I can only say that it is heartbreaking to see this happening.
I support people with Mental Health issues in their own homes and they are already suffering the consequences... (fear to the unknown, uncertainty, but worst of all the impossibility to make their own decisions and choose who they want to support them in their lifes).
Many people could think that this is the Council financial solution in the hard times that we are living in, but let me tell you what upsets me the most: the Council has NOT included in this tendering process the social care services that its own staff provide in the community.
For some people this could seem irrelevant but if you knew that the hourly rate for a Council social care worker is double that for any of us, maybe you start to get suspicious......
If this is about money, and believe me it is, why the Council is not the first one applying its own rules to its own workers??? My salary is around £15,000 a year while anyone doing this kind of job for the Council will get at least £5,000 more.......
Let's forget about the quality of the service, because the charity that I work for got just recently very high reports from the Care Commission, but who cares about this??? Not the Council sure.... It is easier to go for the cheapest bid and forget that they have no experience whatsoever in Mental Health....
And again, who cares about all this??? Well, I DO!!! And I really hope you do too, because remember Mental Health issues can affect anyone at any point in our lifes, and I would like to think that if we are in the other end of the process someone who really cares would be there for us, to keep the HOPE when we can not even do that for ourselves.