Kirk warns of cash cuts consequences

Community care will be put at serious risk unless the government
comes up with more cash for Scotland’s new unitary authorities, the
Church of Scotland has warned.

The Kirk, Scotland’s largest voluntary social work provider,
claims the cuts already proposed by the new authorities will have a
knock-on effect for the voluntary sector.

The warning follows dire predicitions by Scots social work
directors about budgetary squeezes in the forthcoming financial
year.

‘The reported reductions are very serious and potentially
damaging to the most vulnerable sectors of our community,’ said the
Reverend Bill Wallace, convenor of the Kirk’s Board of Social
Responsibility.

‘Community care provision, including residential care
facilities, will be the first to suffer, while redundancies are
inevitable in other social service sectors if more finance is not
made available,’ he added.

Many voluntary organisations – like the Kirk’s social work
department – had already been subsidising central and local
government’s statutory responsibilities, but now they were no
longer able to contribute, Wallace said.