Dumbarton Notebook by Bill Heaney
The Health and Social Care Partnership is not answerable to West Dunbartonshire Council and could legally push forward with their so-called redesign plan for the Council Carers’ Service which serves more than 1,000 vulnerable elderly, sick and disabled people in the community.
The council’s legal manager was about to rule the motion incompetent at a special meeting in the Council’s Church Street headquarters on Wednesday.
It had become clear that the Council has no powers to instruct the H&SCP to pause the redesign proposals – or do anything else for that matter – as they are an external organisation, more commonly known as an arm’s length body.
The SNP government foisted them on Scotland’s 32 councils and declared that it would be run by a mixture of elected and non elected members.
It was only when Cllr Jonathan McColl, an Independent who quit the SNP, pointed this out and Cllr Jim Bollan “tweaked” his motion to pause the introduction of the redesign policies targeted to be introduced on March 2 that the debate was allowed to proceed.
It was either change the wording of the motion, which was to “scrap” the redesign, was changed to “pause” the redesign that – after a 10-minute break for discussion – the meeting went ahead, much to relief of the many people, including many of the carers, who packed the public gallery, where it is still difficult to hear what is being said and well nigh impossible to identify who is saying what.
It could only happen in Dumbarton that you could hear those people calling into the meeting remotely better than you could those inside the hall. The £16 million chamber is therefore still not fit for purpose.
After a long discussion, the Council eventually voted 12-10 to approve the amended amended motion, which includes the following “that WDC urges the H&SCP to approve the pause to allow discussions to take place”.
The discussions will be with the HSCP who came up with the redesign in an effort to take the most controversial items such as changing the wages and working conditions of the servers to their detriment.
For example, one carer, a single mother, was destined to drop 16 hours of time worked which would have led to her losing the money for that which would have probably meant her leaving the service which has a significant recruitment problem.
Another important change the HSCP had proposed related to the time allocated to carers to spend with their patients, some of whom were being allocated only an astonishing seven minutes.
It was also being mooted that the carers would not be allocated travelling time between patients.
Hero of the day for the carers, who demonstrated flying flags and blowing whistles in a steady downpour outside the hall in Church Street, was Cllr Jim Bollan, of the Community Party, who brought all his experience to bear by asking a raft of questions on the design document draft.
While Labour asked NONE, not a single question, despite the fact that at least one of them’s mother was a carer and that others had relatives who worked in the homecare service.
After the meeting, Cllr Bollan told The Dumbarton Democrat: “I am delighted the 12 opposition councillors on WDC passed a motion urging the H&SCP to pause the redesign proposals, which are wrecking our caring service.
“All 10 Labour councillors, to their eternal shame, voted to support the management proposal to cut wages, pensions, home/life balance, plus continue with lone working for women carers, bringing detriment to many staff, and not to pause the redesign to allow discussions with the trade unions to take place.
“Pressure must now be brought to bear on the H&SCP quango to implement Council policy and pause the redesign to allow a new homecare model to be found that both staff and management can sign off on.”
HSCP staff awards 2019 PIC SHOWS Beth Culshaw with Marie McNair and Kerry Begg
Supporting the carers – Cllr Sophie Trainer, Marie McNair MSP, and Cllr Jim Bollan.
Later – we couldn’t hear Cllr Sophie Trainer, the member for Clydebank Central, because she was sitting with her back to us 10ft below the public gallery and we could not see her face either – we managed to pick up what she said in the chamber at what was supposed to be a public meeting.
Cllr Trainer said: “Care At Home Redesign: I am proud to have seconded Cllr Bollan’s motion at today’s special council meeting which calls on the HSCP to immediately pause the implementation of the Care At Home redesign to allow for meaningful engagement with both carers and trade unions in an attempt to get a compromise model suitable for both parties that also meets the needs of the client group.
she added: “During the meeting I asked a number of questions directly linked to concerns that had been brought to me by both carers and service users over recent weeks. Whilst I received answers to these it does not subtract from the realities being faced by the carers who deliver this service every single day.
“I feel it is important to highlight that only Labour administration councillors sit on the HSCP board in West Dunbartonshire. As such, opposition councillors felt we had no choice but to bring this forward in this way to allow us to scrutinise and question what is taking place on behalf of those we are elected to represent.
“Whilst this does not yet pause the process, it provides a step in the right direction. I will be keeping a close eye on what happens next with this.”
Cllr Trainer expressed solidarity with the carers “who do a fantastic job providing a vital service to residents across West Dunbartonshire”.
The was considerable sympathy for her and from Marie McNair, the MSP for Clydebank, who said:”
It is appalling that the Labour administration are not allowing any opposition members on to the Health and Social Partnership’s Integrated Joint Board. This didn’t happen in the SNP administration.”
The Labour Group who voted against the motion which may allow the redesign of the West Dunbartonshire Council’s Home Care Service. Picture by Bill HeaneyDanii McKellar said: “Can I just say, not only as one of your constituents – but as a service user myself who gets daily carers – THANK YOU.
“Honestly, just knowing that you cared enough to challenge them, is more than anyone expected. Even if it doesn’t change anything,
“I sincerely hope that the people of West Dunbartonshire remember which party cared about the most vulnerable constituents on election day – because I know my vote isn’t going anywhere near Labour.”
Lorraine Kielty added: “My mother had carers up until 2018, my hat is off to them for the job they do. They didnt get a lot of time then.
“The people making these decisions are totally out of touch with reality. They should by law have to be on the ground as care workers for a minimum of 5 years before being allowed near this job.
“They should then have to do a minimum 2 months a year caring on the ‘ front line’ as a reminder of the challenges carers can come across.”