Residents, relatives and staff at Fife Council’s care homes have vowed to press on with their campaign to overturn the local authority’s decision to privatise them.
Organisers of the local Save Our Care Homes campaign held a meeting recently which attracted around 25 people representing six of the 10 council homes threatened with closure.
Now the group, working under the name Save Our Care Homes, says it is taking its campaign to the Holyrood candidates in the lead-up to next month’s Scottish elections in the hope Fife Council will perform a U-turn.
With finances growing ever tighter over the coming years, the local authority decided that it should close all of its residential care homes when suitable alternative provision becomes available, with residents expected to move to another care home of their choice in the private or not-for- profit sector.
However, it seems that all of the people who attended the campaign’s latest meeting left more determined than ever to fight the decision.
Dougie Black, an organiser with UNISON, said the union has around 140 members working across the council’s 10 care homes who are worried for the people they care for, their relatives, and their own jobs.
“This decision throws into question the role local council services play in our community,” he said. “Do we want our services run by an organisation such as a council, whose main focus is the welfare of its citizens or do we leave it up to the private sector who, by law, must focus on making profits for shareholders over anything else?”
With campaigning for the May 5 election well under way, Mr Black added that the Save Our Care Homes campaign will similarly gather pace in the coming weeks, with supporters of the group expected to attend local election hustings events, speak to voters in their communities and lobby prospective MSPs.
All the relatives at the latest campaign meeting spoke about feeling ignored by the council in the wake of the decision.’Shrugged off'”Almost everyone shared a story of contacting their local councillor and either being ignored by them or shrugged off,” said Ian Sloan, a member of the group.
“I would have thought our councillors could show us a little more respect than that,” he added.
And Hazel Gordon, whose mother lives at South Parks Home in Glenrothes, said, “When I first heard about the council’s decision I was devastated and felt powerless to do anything about it.
“Now I know there are others like me, we can work together to campaign for our parents’ right to stay in their homes.”
Matthew Smart, the son of a council home resident, added, “I wouldn’t ordinarily consider myself a very political person but the council’s decision has made me understand the effect politics has on all of us.”Find the Save Our Care Homes campaign Facebook page here.