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13 March 2000 CLOSURE OF CRAIGMILLAR CHILDRENS PROJECT UNISON seeks the support of the Social Work Committee to delay and review the closure of the Craigmillar Childrens Project. We attach a brief outline of the project and the main issues. UNISON's submission is based on: 1. There are two ongoing reviews of provision in the area, both of which involve the project's role. One is about to report on ‘Working Together' in Craigmillar. The other in which the Community Education Strategy Group has commissioned a consultant, is considering the possibility of merger of the project with another in the area. Closure at this stage will undermine these reviews and the strategy for services to children and families. It would also pre-empt and in reality nullify the detailed work carried out to date. 2. Lack of consultation, implications for other staff/services. There has been no consultation with staff, service users or the community. There are implications not just for staff in the project, but also for practice team staff in the area who could face increased pressures and workload without this resource. See attached letter from Children & Families Practice Team Manager. It appears there has been no dialogue with the other funding partner (Education) given their contribution has not been removed from budget. 3. Closure at this stage would undermine the council's concept of ‘Joined-Up Working" and the Scottish Executive's aim of promoting "Social Inclusion". The strength of provision in the area is the contribution of all of the existing resources and how they integrate. The reviews are attempting to address this. The project is not resistant to change and welcomes proper and evidenced examination of its role. 4. The ‘alternative provision' mentioned in budget documents has not been identified. The current project is cost effective. If it only prevents two children having to go to residential school (each placement costs approx £60,000), it would more than recoup the cost of continued Social Work Department funding. Craigmillar Childrens Project Key Information for Councillors ESTABLISHED: 1988. The first project in Edinburgh to work with primary school age children within schools. FUNDING: Initially Urban Aid. Since 1993 joint funded by Education and Social Work Departments. SOCIAL WORK CONTRIBUTION - £137,000 NEW FUNDING : In 1999, £50,000 to support children to remain in their own families, local schools and communities. The funding was for two years with money saved from the closure of St Joseph's school. PROJECT AIMS : To help children achieve their full potential by supporting them at home and school. To support children at risk of exclusion or family breakdown. WHO DOES THE PROJECT WORK WITH?: Children from 4 - 14 years of age who attend schools in the Greater Craigmillar area. The CCP is actively assessing or working with 54 children. HOW DOES THE PROJECT SUPPORT CHILDREN AND FAMILIES? The team works in partnership with parents and uses a variety of methods such as individual support for a child in school and home; parenting groups; groupwork with children with low self-esteem or who have suffered loss or abuse; family support such as advice on behaviour management; class support. POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED: 1. A large number of children and families receive support form the CCP. 2. The Council states that services will be maintained by the current budget but this provision is not identified. 3. Families are upset and angry at the news. 4. There has been no consultation with service users. 5. The Council is promoting a "Working Together Strategy" in deprived areas of Edinburgh. A report to councillors in November 1998 noted that "the developmental work of projects such as the Craigmillar Childrens Project has had a strong influence on the strategy". 6. The same report also noted that "the further a pupil is removed from their home school the less likely it is they will go back to that school on a permanent basis" 7. The average cost of a pupil attending a residential school is in the region of £60,000. If the project only helps prevent two children from being excluded and accommodated, the project would more than cover the cuts being implemented. 8. The Working Together Strategy in Craigmillar is being reviewed. This will look at the best ways of delivering services to vulnerable children and how agencies should best work together to achieve this. This review should be allowed to conclude. 9. The project welcomed the review and is keen to positively develop good practice and different ways of delivering the best service to children and families. 10. The Scottish Executive has a vision of new community schools to raise educational attainment and promote social inclusion. This vision has been integral to the aims of the Craigmillar Childrens project. 11. Craigmillar's Community Education Strategy Group has commissioned a consultant (from New Community Schools funding) to look at the services to children and families in the area and a possible merger of the CCP and another local project, ‘Instep'. This report still needs to be discussed and acted upon. 12. The vision of a New Community School should not and, in our view could not go ahead without the Social Work Department offering a full commitment. The Council is committed to integration of services to meet the needs of children and their families and this integration requires Social Work involvement. 13. Craigmillar Primary School closed in December 1999. A great number of children have been unsettled by this closure and need extra supports rather than news of another closure. 14. The work of the project is highly valued by the local Social Work Children & Families team. There are implications for staff working in the project, but also for the workload and pressures on staff in the Children & Families team. Home Page | Hot News | UNISONNews
8 March 2000 Edinburgh Budget: UNISON calls for partnership Cautious welcome for the council’s 2000/2001 budget is marred by closure of Craigmillar Childrens Project. Below is the text of the submission City of Edinburgh Vice Chair John Stevenson made to the Council at 10am on Thursday 9 March 2000. Social Work steward Lyn Williams will also condemn the closure of Craigmillar Childrens Project which was announced for closure yesterday without consultation with users, the public or staff. "Lord Provost, normally UNISON comes before the council on budget day looking for partnership, but forced into conflict when we have to defend our members jobs and - just as importantly - the services they provide for the people of Edinburgh. And in that we do recognise the difficult choices that face you each year. In previous years, we have had to fight for our members very livelihoods, against redundancies or against your employees' jobs being sold to the highest bidder. You know, when astronaut Buzz Aldrin was asked how he felt just before blast-off, he said "How would you feel sitting on1000 lowest tenders?". That is how it has felt to us over the last few years. But this year, we congratulate the Labour Administration on the growth it has been able to achieve and on avoiding, as far as we can see, the threat of redundancies in the council. Whether or not you will give a ‘no-redundancy' guarantee, so long as there are no redundancies, we can do business. But redundancies are still a risk in the voluntary sector. Some projects are likely to close and many others will not be able to manage with no provision for inflation in their grants. The large organisations may be able to absorb cuts in grants in the way the council has had to with its allocation, but smalller projects will see staff conditions cut and jobs lost. Many of our members have now gone several years without receiving the agreed pay settlements. But at risk of some members here thinking I may be heading for senility, there is a great deal to welcome in this budget. Social Work in particular could not go on the way it was, and perhaps it took the tragedy of the Edinburgh Inquiry to highlight just what is needed in the way of resources to provide essential services. Things will not be better tomorrow, staff are still working under intolerable stress with the buck too often stopping at their level, for problems that are created at a political or managerial level. But we do welcome the improvements. Well, that would have been the end of it and we could have been very positive, had it not been for developments yesterday at Craigmillar Youth Project and my colleague Lyn Williams will outline the effects of that. Cuts and closures are still very much with us. You wouldn't of course expect me to paint too glossy a picture. Huge, and mainly Tory budget cuts of 20's and 30's of millions of pounds since the new council was formed have been a bit like being hit over the head with a hammer. The headache gets a wee bit better when it stops. You could be forgiven for getting a bit light headed, but unfortunately, the nagging headache is still there. If extra resources are going into Social Work and Education, where do the cuts to make up the £8.5million come from? UNISON is deeply concerned at the pressures faced by the council's central support functions - many of those serve councillors directly, others keep the rest of the council infrastructure together. They have faced cuts, reorganisations and the label of surplus bureaucrats. In reality the problem is that there is not enough administrative support, with higher paid staff in this technological age writing envelope upon envelope by hand, photocopying and so on instead of the jobs they are being paid to do - sometimes called ‘efficiency savings', these are false economies. And last, but certainly not least, UNISON is concerned about the position of manual workers in the council. They have borne the brunt of outsourcing, trusts and privatisation. They, often on the lowest wages and poorest conditions, have found even these conditions under threat and agreements broken due to Compulsory Tendering in the past, and in the present, voluntary tendering and, in our view, a misapplication of Best Value. We are asking the Council to make a new commitment to its manual workers, to Grounds Maintenance, to the Leisure Trust, to cleaners and catering staff, to school ancillaries, to crossing patrol guides, to home helps and many others whose jobs are no less important to the running of the council and its services than anyone else's. In conclusion, UNISON genuinely welcomes attempts to protect and build on Edinburgh's services and to make them more efficient and accountable. We welcome the fact that we are not in conflict on as many issues this year and our offer to build a real and lasting partnership between the council and its workers remains on the table as strongly as it did three years ago. Perhaps now is the time for the council to take a lead from some developments in the NHS, pick up our partnership document and enter serious talks about it. Perhaps that way, we can avoid some of the crises that my colleague will outline to you today. Susan Deacon MSP, speaking to a UNISON meeting the other week identified herself with our Serving Scotland Campaign themes of: services that are responsive to the needs and wishes of the Scottish people - giving people a say in their services. services that are the best that can be delivered - choosing quality services services that are provided by a public services team, a workforce trained and qualified, treated fairly and equally, with the resources to deliver If we and the council could go forward on those principles it would best serve the aims we know the Labour Administration aspires to, it would best serve our members' hopes and most of all it would best serve the interests of the people of Edinburgh." ENDS | |||