Cambuslang Carers clients accuse council of moving the goalposts

FORMER clients of Cambuslang Community Carers and Rutherglen have accused the council of renegading on promises that their care packages would not be cut.

Mothers Kathleen Gallagher and Jackie Mount both rely on carers to help them with their sick children, but they have been left furious by what South Lanarkshire Council have offered them.

The carers’ group was forced to close down earlier this month after the council pulled the plug on their funding, but at the time the authority said they would work to “ensure that those individuals who currently receive services are reviewed and that appropriate arrangements are put in place to ensure continuity of service provision.”

However, according to Kathleen and Jackie, that promise has not been kept.

The news comes as the group’s final board meeting released a statement slamming local councillors and officers.

In it they claim that they know of a service-user who has gone from nine hours’ care a week to just two under a new council package.

Kathleen’s nine-year-old daughter, Ailis, who suffers from Leigh’s Disease, requires constant care.

Kathleen has already lost a daughter to the condition, as Aoife died just weeks before her third birthday.

The original care package also provided care for her two sons, Sean and James, which allowed her to spend some precious time with her eldest daughter, Kiera.

But that time has been taken away from her, and she claims a social worker told her the council weren’t running a “baby-sitting service.”

She is also unhappy that they can’t guarantee the same carers she will have the same carers each day, despite the need for familiarity so the kids don’t get upset, due to a stream of strangers coming into the home.

She said: “It’s just not worth the hassle of having different people come in, the kids get awfully upset.

“I’ll be going on direct payments and employing someone to come in.

“The package I’m getting is not as wide-ranging as before. It won’t cover the two boys – but not everyone has family who can come and look after their kids.

“The care package should just be transferred over, exactly as it is.

“I used that time to spend with my eldest – she’s the one who’s been through everything. She remembers Aoifa dying and Ailis before she got sick.”

Meanwhile, although the Mount family receive only three hours’ help every few weeks, Jackie says this support is invaluable to her and husband Jim as they look after their son Jordan. The 10-year-old suffers from Hurler’s Syndrome.

Jackie said: “It let Jim and I go out for some dinner while someone sat with the kids, but now we’ve been told the package will only cover Jordan.

“I can’t believe it has come to this. It’s the clients and the staff who are suffering – the whole thing seems very underhand.”

The pair feel the council have gone back on their own statement of a few weeks ago, when a spokesperson said: “The Council is currently working to ensure that those individuals who currently receive services are reviewed and that appropriate arrangements are put in place to ensure continuity of service-provision.”

Kathleen Gallagher said she had taken the issue up with her MSP, James Kelly.

Mr Kelly confirmed that a number of constituents had contacted him on the issue and that he had written to the council looking for them to “clarify the situation.”

The group had also been in contact with the SNP candidate for the Rutherglen seat, Councillor Jim McGuigan, who said: “I have been assured by the Director of Social Work that care will continue on a like-for-like basis, but I have my doubts what the definition of ‘like-for-like’ is.

“I think there will be certain circumstances where there will be a reduction of services while the carers had been carrying out tasks that I don’t think the council will look at.”

He added that he had advised members on ways they could resurrect the group in some guise.

A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council said: “There has been ongoing discussion with families and we have worked closely with them to ensure that the necessary support has been put in place.

“Almost all of the families have accepted this offer of support and we have ongoing contact with all of the families.

“Individuals who remain unhappy with the arrangements for the provision of care should raise this with social work staff within Rutherglen local office and we will continue to seek to resolve any issues.“