50 Care Workers Face Axe As City Looks To Save £1m

Around 50 of Edinburgh council’s health and social care department staff are set to be offered voluntary redundancy in a bid to help reduce its budget deficit.

{mosimage}Home helps are among those likely to be targeted in a cost-cutting exercise expected to save around £1 million in the course of a full year.

The drastic measures may be necessary because fewer workers than anticipated have left as a result of natural staff turnover. Union leaders today warned such action would impact on vital services for elderly and vulnerable residents across Edinburgh.

The department is responsible for a number of care homes and social work offices. However, council chiefs said they would be able to minimise the effect by increasing the efficiency of the remaining workforce, such as reducing the amount of time spent by workers travelling between clients.

Staff in the health and social care department are already facing extra pressure following a decision to freeze recruitment.

A council spokeswoman said: “Due to the budget situation, we are considering some voluntary severance of staff. There has been no formal agreement yet on the scale of these redundancies.”

Unions have already warned council employees should not be made to take on extra work as a direct result of the rising number of vacancies in their departments.

John Stevenson, spokesman for the city council branch of public sector union Unison, said: “It’s a sad day when we are talking about voluntary redundancies in home care services. However, with the high-intensity pressures faced by workers, there may be some people who would be glad to go.”

Across the council, recent budget predictions showed there would be a £25m overspend in 2007-8 without any cost-cutting. The city’s huge health and social care department has introduced a limit on overtime, banned the use of agency workers, and blocked all new job appointments, apart from the most critical posts.

The council’s director of finance, Donald McGougan, said: “In recognition of the fact that savings on staff will not meet its target in full through natural turnover, consideration is being given to offering voluntary severance in areas where on-going reductions can be sustained.”

Councillors are due to discuss the budget issues on Tuesday.