A charity has reversed plans to axe services for disabled people in North Lanarkshire after the Herald intervened.
Quarriers planned to cut provision for adults with disabilities who were receiving less than 50 hours a week of support. It claimed contracts were no longer viable due to rising costs, tight budgets and problems recruiting permanent staff.
Social workers at North Lanarkshire council described the decision as coming out of the blue and the Council said it was disappointed at the charity's bid to withdraw from a contract to provide services to a number of disabled adults
Andy Williamson, Deputy Chief Executive and Service Director at Quarriers, had previosly told the Herald the charity found itself in a “negative financial position”.
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“Quarriers, like many other organisations in the care sector, has faced significant difficulties recruiting suitable permanent staff meaning that agency staff have been required to fill vacancies,” he said.
“This has resulted in staff costs being significantly higher for a prolonged period of time. This, combined with tightly-budgeted hourly rates to deliver care and our commitment to paying the Scottish Living Wage, has led to a negative financial position that we can no longer sustain.”
The charity wrote to all those who receive less than 50 hours of care a week, and told them it would no longer provide support from the end of next month but would work with the council to seek alternative arrangements.
But last night a spokeswoman said the charity was reversing its decision, Further details were unavailable, but Frank Murray, whose adult son Craig was set to be affected, said he was delighted. "We cannot thank the Herald enough," he said. "This is a huge worry lifted off our shoulders.
"Craig has been thrown by this but it is the ideal solution for him and means there will be minimal disruption. Quarriers has been his safety net since 2002. "This is great news. But I still think the handling of this has been reprehensible and shambolic.
Morag Dendy, North Lanarkshire Council’s Addictions, Learning Disability and Mental Health Manager, had previously expressed her disappointment with Quarriers plans to withdraw from its deal with the council.
She said the council had had limited notice of the charity's decision and was "disappointed" by the proposed action. "We are committed to making sure that the most vulnerable people in our community are supported well and we will do this," she said.
While this decision may have been reversed, the move by Quarriers comes amid increasing signs of strains between councils and care providers. A new survey by disability charity Hft shos that the rate at which care providers are handing contracts back to councils has doubled in the last year. Researchers who found 59 per cent of providers had handed back contracts last year compared with 25 per cent in 2017. Many, like Quarriers, said staff shortages were forcing them to rely heavily on agency workers.
Robert Longley-Cook, chief executive of Hft, said closures were a last resort for any social care provider. “It is culturally at odds with the way the majority usually operate, particularly when we have supported individuals for the majority of their adult life,” he said. “The underfunding of social care is having a deeply negative impact on providers and their ability to deliver critical support to vulnerable adults."
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