A JOB advert for a position with the Health and Social Care Partnership in Argyll and Bute has come under criticism from those in care roles, who are facing possible cuts to their services come February.
The hybrid, full time position of Service Improvement Officer for the Arrochar area comes with a salary of between £49,090 – £53,725 per year. The job involves supporting the Children, Families and Justice services and the successful applicant will be required to travel throughout Argyll and Bute.
HSCP insist the job is essential and involves ‘frontline work’ but there’s been pushback against the advertised position from those facing cutbacks in the HSCP.
Currently the organisation is facing a budget crisis and a serious funding shortfall and options are being explored regarding a wide range of cuts before the council’s annual budget meeting next month.
One proposal is to remove the Telecare emergency response teams for both Dunoon and Rothesay. Telecare alarms would still exist, but there would be no local responders – alarm call outs would be passed on to ambulance or police instead.
Last year details emerged of plans to implement £500,000 worth of savings on social care services in Argyll and Bute and a stark warning was issued to HSCP, from local Telecare emergency responders.
Responders expressed their concern over the proposal and have warned that if the service was cut it would overburden local paramedics and police, who are already struggling to cope.
Resentment has also been expressed now over the recently advertised new position with the HSCP and many feel the move is a bureaucratic expansion rather than support for essential posts at risk.
Even if the new job is genuinely needed for service improvement, the optics of hiring during a period of cuts has fuelled anger among some staff facing uncertainty.
One responder contacted this newspaper and explained their frustration over the current job advert with the advertised £53,725 salary and the fact the service they’re involved with is facing the axe.
They said: “I saw the advert and thought not bad for an organisation claiming its strapped for cash. The job remit advises one of it’s roles will be to make Argyll and Bute a better place to work and live in. Removing the response service will certainly not do that.”
Another wanted to know how the HSCP now has funds for new roles while existing ones face the axe, they stated: “As recently as last month HSCP chiefs were making noises that they had no money and needed more funds otherwise wide sweeping cuts to services were on the table. Now suddenly they’ve found a wad of cash for an extremely well paying new role. How strange.”
But HSCP chiefs explained this week that the advertised position is essential and the work of the officer is vital to keep existing care services running.
An HSCP spokesperson explained: “We have a wide range of health and social care staff working across our communities and they possess a wide variety of skills, roles and responsibilities to ensure that we can provide health and social care support to people in our communities who use our services.
“Many of these staff are frontline and work directly with the people who use our services on a daily basis however we also need the support of less visible roles such as the Service Improvement Officer as these are key in ensuring that the HSCP can deliver the maximum positive impact from the limited financial resources that we have available.
“We also have strict vacancy monitoring procedures in place to ensure that any replacement posts are essential to meeting an identified need with this particular role working across a range of vital children, family and justice services to help support the provision of the highest quality patient centred care.
“The redesign of our services is also key to meeting the future challenges and therefore investment in supporting roles such as this is important in ensuring that front line staff can retain their focus on service delivery.”
Argyll and Bute Council’s main budget meeting — where councillors will formally agree the council’s spending priorities and set the budget for the coming financial year is scheduled for next month.
