Care homes to close to help plug £60m shortfall
- Published
Clovenstone House is one of two care homes that will close
Two Edinburgh care homes are to close as the city tries to bridge a £60m budget shortfall in social care.
Grants to third sector organisations also face a 10% cut under plans agreed by the city's integration joint board.
Care homes Clovenstone House and Ford's Road will both shut, with 68 residents moved to other facilities.
Unions and community groups warned the measures would have a huge impact, but they were approved amid warnings that spending is unsustainable.
The two care homes regularly receive good inspection ratings but were said to be nearing the end of their design life.
A report said demand was highest for nursing and dementia care, and that larger facilities with registered nurses on site were better placed to deliver those services.
The board said it would engage with residents and relatives about transfers and attempt to move people within friendship groups to make it less unsettling. It said there would be no job cuts.
But protesters gathered outside City Chambers, urging the board to reconsider.
Ben Owen, from the Unite union, told the meeting: "Thousands of hours of support will be cut; hospitals, care homes, prison cells and morgues will fill up as a consequence."
Protesters gathered at city chambers to oppose the plans
Pat Togher, chief officer of the Edinburgh Integration Joint Partnership, said: "Like health and social care integration authorities across Scotland, Edinburgh is facing unprecedented financial challenges and we are taking measures to ensure that we protect core services and return to a stable financial position.
"Despite the significant challenges posed by an estimated £60m budget deficit in the next year, we are implementing a package of reforms which will not only cut the structural deficit in a manageable way over the coming years, but will allow us to protect services for the people of Edinburgh."
Other agreed measures included reviewing existing care packages to ensure they are the "right size" as well as reduced investment in mental health and drug and alcohol services.
A 'false economy'
Rachel Green of the Ripple Project, which provides community services including a lunch club for elderly people, said the cuts in grants could prove to be a false economy.
She told BBC Scotland News: "Without that lunch club that's 15 people who won't have a meal per day, who won't go out of their houses, who won't see anybody in their community.
"The impact of the withdrawal of that service is far greater - and actually the cost of supporting those people will be shifted to other areas within that budget."
Asked about the pressures on social care budgets, First Minister Humza Yousaf said these were local decisions.
But he said his government had increased the budget for local authorities and given them additional funding to increase social care wages to £12 an hour.
"I would say to local authorities right up and down the country to make sure they're prioritising health and and social care," he added.