Councillors may look at lessening cuts to charity
A lifeline mental health charity could be spared at least some of the cuts it has been threatened with.
Glasgow Association for Mental Health (GAMH) was told last year that essential council funding will be axed by 40% - throwing its future into doubt.
However, councillors yesterday agreed to recommend the cuts be scaled back to 30%.
This was welcomed by campaigners, though the service could still be in peril.
Trade union Unison welcomed the recommendation – and vowed to fight the 30% cut.
We must join together to fight the 30% cuts. Let's make them do the process properly
Labour councillors on Glasgow City Council pushed through the controversial cuts package last year – in the teeth of widespread opposition.
SNP and Green councillors managed to bring the decision to the scrutiny committee which yesterday (Thursday, 15 January) decided to recommend lessening the cuts.
The council's executive will now reconsider GAMH's funding on Thursday (22 January).
SNP councillor David McDonald said: “I am content that we have managed to force the Labour administration to rethink their clouded thinking over budget allocations to Glasgow Association for Mental Health.
“The executive committee will now have the opportunity to rethink the proposals, based on the needs of service users and the ability of the organisation to work with constraints on budgets across the public and voluntary sector.
“It is vital that Labour does not cut budgets so deeply that we see greater need for social work services in future”.
Unison said the correct processes had not been followed when the original decision was made.
Sending the issue back to the executive committee could correct that.
Deborah Dyer from Unison said: "We're delighted that the decision has been taken to recommend reducing cuts by 10%, this will save some jobs and help service users, but we will still fight the 30% cut. What we want now is for the council to sit down with the union and the charity and have constructive talks about where we go from here before this goes before the executive committee again."
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "Following a meeting of the council's operational scrutiny delivery committee, the decision on the review of mental health services has been referred back to the executive committee with a recommendation that a 30% cut to GAMH's funding be considered.
"The original proposal which recommended that the conclusions of the review of mental health services be implemented will also be put before the executive committee. Social work's proposals emphasised the need for early intervention and prevention work that delivers better outcomes for individuals.
"Under those proposals GAMH is still envisaged as significant provider of mental health support in Glasgow. However, a duplication of work was identified during the service review and the original proposal sees GAMH working more closely with GPs, focusing on prevention rather than crisis intervention and delivering that preventative support more effectively."
