Fears raised after council cuts elderly funding
Residents of the Glen Estate sheltered housing complex in Brodick have been rocked by the news that vital funding for elderly care provision has been hit by North Ayrshire Council budget cuts.
It is feared the cuts will have a drastic impact on the registered tenants who could potentially lose the vital services of the association’s co-ordinator who assists with day-to-day organisational, social and health issues affecting residents.
Glen Estate Housing Association is a registered tenants’ association with Trust Housing Association and has its own elected committee and a constitution. The cut in funding is owing to North Ayrshire Council making a £20,669 reduction in its budget by eliminating its contribution to the Trust Housing Association for Arran.
Glen Estate currently houses 15 residents and has two rooms for guests who are visiting family from a distance; those who are looking into sheltered housing accommodation or for relatives and family during times of bereavement.
Trust Housing Association, under whose auspices Glen Estate falls, are a national housing and care provider offering housing, care and support services. Their primary aim is to assist older people in their communi- ties where they provide and maintain homes for more than 2,500 people across Scotland.
McKelvie Road Housing Association in Lamlash will also face the impact of these cuts along with housing support providers across North Ayrshire, who will all feel the implications of a total of £159,000 being reduced in funding support from council coffers.
Representatives from trust housing will be visiting the two residents’ associations on Arran on Thursday April 12, where they will look into what impact these cuts will have and the manner in which they will have to deal with them.
Lynn Ross of the Glen Estate Tenants Association said she was ‘shocked and concerned’ by the announcement. She said: ‘Hopefully the meeting on April 12 will clarify the situation and alleviate residents’ concerns about future care.’
A North Ayrshire Council spokesman said: ‘We previously received ring-fenced grant funding from central government which was mainly used to help us support warden services across our external partners. This ring-fencing was removed in 2008 but we continued, where possible, to maintain this level of support from our own resources.
‘Unfortunately, we had to make a number of tough decisions in this year’s budget and it was agreed that we could no longer afford to provide this level of funding for a service that we no longer deliver in our own facilities to our external partners.
‘We issued a notification letter outlining the withdrawal of the payment to Trust Housing Association as soon as possible after the 2018/19 council budget was agreed. We received a response to this letter from Trust Housing Association expressing their disappointment regarding the timescales for notification, and that they would consider the implications.
‘Council representatives remain willing, of course, to look to meet with representatives from Glen Estate Trust Housing Association to offer assistance to help mitigate the impact.’