Fife charity shuts as contract goes south

A long-established Fife charity which provides help and advocacy for people with dementia and mental health problems will close in June.

Fife Council, which provides all the funding to Fife Advocacy Initiative (FAI) has awarded a three-year contract for all services to Circles Network, an organisation based in Warwickshire – and the decision will mean the end of the Fife charity which has operated for the past 17 years.

The news that the charity – which has just been given a top quality service award from the Fife Rights Forum – will close has been met with anger and dismay from many current and former clients who said the service was “brilliant.”

And they say it will take a long time for people to build up the trust and relationships they have had forged with advocates from the Fife services.

Gary Guichan, manager with Fife Advocacy for the past five years, said the five remaining staff were “frustrated and disappointed” with the decision.

He said: “We have provided advocacy for individuals for 17 years, and another group, ‘Today in Cupar’ , provides group advocacy. The council tendered for a combined service and all those who took part were judged by a panel of social work and health service staff who gave a mark out of 500 for all the different areas.

“We were told that although we had done well, Circles had won it, but that was based on the tender they put in – not by the council’s experience in dealing with the organisation.

“They have professional people putting in tenders. We are just amateurs at this procedure – that’s maybe why we lost out.”

He added: ”As council funding was our only income we will have to close in June. It was supposed to be at the end of March but they gave us another three months funding to cover the transition period. We are waiting to find out if our staff will be kept on by Circles through a legal agreement and we hope vulnerable people in Fife will continue to be given a quality advocacy service. Only time will tell.”

Roseanne Fearon, senior manager with Fife Council’s adult services, said: “The contract was awarded following our standard tendering process.

”This was a fair and transparent process involving a mixed selection panel from across the Council and NHS Fife.

“It had to take lots of things into account and make a judgement as to which organisation could improve outcomes for people with mental health difficulties.

“Our contracts with Fife Advocacy Initiative (FAI) and Mental Health Survivors Project (Today Group) ended on 31 March.

”However we have asked to meet both groups to plan a proper handover and – if they are willing – we will ask the social work and health committee for an extra three months’ funding for the groups to support this transition.”