Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Meeting over CAB cuts threats
Council officers agree to talks with staff
Council officials are to meet with representatives from the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux ( CABs) across North Lanarkshire in light of the proposed reduction to their funding.
The Advertiser told last week how the Coatbridge and Airdrie services are battling against respectively proposed cuts of 57 and 48 per cent in their annual grants from the local authority.
Now councillors aim to meet bureaux staff, along with counterparts from other local advice agencies, to “discuss the future shape of advice services” – including streamlining organisations and avoiding duplication of services.
Coatbridge’s CAB could lose £ 67,100 per year in council funding, and Airdrie’s a further £60,350; which staff say leaves both operations in “serious jeopardy” and could even result in closure.
It follows North Lanarkshire’s budget cuts imposed earlier this year, with the raft of savings measures including £ 321,000 per year from “reviewing posts in advisory services together with external grant funding to reconfigure a new delivery model”.
Transformation committee convener Andrew Spowart, the Airdrie North councillor, said: “I fully understand the concerns of third-sector advice services over the proposals, but the facts are simple.
“Given the scale of cuts the council is dealing with, changes need to be considered. We have tough decisions to make about many statutory services and advice groups cannot be immune.
“We fund multiple third-sector organisations who provide services which all too often overlap. Over time, a number of funding arrangements have built up, but historical arrangements are no good reason to continue with duplication.
“It’s 20 years since the structure of CABs and other agencies, and their relationships with the council, were properly examined – we’ve dramatically changed the way we deliver services, improving efficiencies and removing layers, and now advice bodies have to look to their own delivery models.
“We must be sure we are providing the best possible service to residents and all funded agencies participate fully in a robust, wellstructured network to be certain all outcomes are the best they can possibly be – we have to sit round the table and discuss the best way to deliver a strong, resident-focused advice service for the future.”
The committee met last Tuesday to consider review options, but did not reach a verdict on the proposals put to them. The final decision will be made by the policy and resources committee.
Among the key proposals outlined were the creation of a single financial advice service, bringing together the council’s existing welfare, income maximisation and money advice projects to save £125,000; stopping duplicate funding where this is also provided by another organisation, and removing Airdrie’s additional funding for assistant managers.
The proposed CAB funding cuts have been opposed by Monklands’ MSPs – and the local bureaux managers told how the proposed cut in funding comes at a time when they have “never been busier”.
Airdrie bureau manager Aaliya Seyal and Coatbridge counterpart Marian Tobin told the Advertiser: “Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen an average of 60 people every day.
“These aren’t families with minor issues – often the people we see are in crisis situations, for example drowning in debt or perhaps facing eviction.
“It’s disappointing that the council is considering cutting our funds when we seem to be more needed than ever; we feel cutting the CAB would be a false economy, and we consider the human impact on people we help to be even more important.”
Often the people we see are in crisis situations, for example drowning in debt