During a slightly unhinged tirade at a colleague today, I found myself in the strange situation of momentarily pausing to contemplate the significance of my own words. “When these services are cut they will not come back”, I eloquently stated. Regrettably, there is a considerable chance that this is true. Once local libraries, meals on wheels services and subsidised schemes enabling disabled people to hire gardeners and handymen lose statutory funding from councils, it is unlikely that they can be revitalised once the economic outlook is more rosy. When charities (and indeed private providers) bid for services and perform a service (a common misconception is that all charities rely on public support) for the council,there is the expectation that they will provide a service either more effectively or more cheaply. If a provider loses its funding, the effect is often instantaneous; programmes must be utterly revised to meet new criteria and then the provider must often bid once again for the chance to run such services. Invariably, if they lose funding they just collapse, especially if a charities funding is not from a diverse range of sources. In my area of London (Hackney), numerous programmes have been told in January that their funding will be stopped from April. The Single Homeless Project which supplies floating support to vulnerable adults at risk of homelessness has just lost its supported housing scheme at Goldsmith’s row. Peter Bedford, whose charity (of the same name) provides work experience to adults with head injuries and severe and enduring psychological difficulties faces a similar fate. There is (at this stage unverifiable) evidence that Hackney’s Domestic Violence and Hate Crime Team will also either have their funding slashed or simply stopped. Core services, many of which target vulnerable adults, are being decimated. This is not simply unfortunate or regressive. It is deeply irresponsible and draconian assault on a whole section of vulnerable people who rely on such services to enjoy a semblance of independence. It may seem sentimental, but many rely on such services to enable brief periods of joy in their life. As mentioned, once gone, such things do not return.
AF
Cuts Disgust 