Councillors vote to keep social work team at hospital

A ‘lifesaving’ social work team at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) has been retained after Edinburgh councillors reversed a decision to scrap it.

Council officers had told staff the team would be disbanded in early September, despite city councillors instructing them to not make a decision on it without consulting them first.

Now, after a vote on Tuesday, the team’s position is again secure, with councillors also making clear they expect recruitment to follow for all of the team’s vacant posts.

Cllr Euan Hyslop, who put forward the motion to keep the team in place at the Education Committee meeting, said he was glad that the ‘incredible’ service was saved.

He said: “Like the staff, and families who rely on this service, I’m incredibly relieved that common sense has prevailed.

“The physical presence of trained social workers in the hospital with the skills and experience to intervene at the right moment is not replaceable with a centralised service.

“These workers do an incredible job providing an invaluable service to children and families at their most vulnerable, and have worked with some of the most complex young people for decades.”

He also criticised Conservative councillors for suggesting the social work team was unproductive, and hoped they would apologise to the workers.

At September’s full council meeting, Conservative councillor Phil Doggart had said the team had a low caseload compared to others in the city.

He added that, because the staff would be redistributed, the disbanding of the team would not constitute the service being withdrawn.

Investigation

Councillors also voted for an investigation into the decision to cut the team to be launched, examining why the decision was made without their approval.

And they approved a proposal by officers to launch a ‘test for change’ third-sector team at the hospital to avoid ‘duplication of service provision’.

Katrina Baird, a branch officer for the Unison trade union, which represents staff on the team, told councillors they welcomed the social work team being saved.

However, she said the union had many questions about the planned “test for change” team, and it and the staff felt it was a “vague concept”.

She added the social work team had expressed a willingness to take on additional responsibilities and more workload.

The social care team has been in place for over 20 years, after being launched to help mothers facing domestic violence or homelessness.

Their remit has since widened, with the team of around 10 social workers handling cases involving children with severe disability or illness.

Additionally, they provide a fixed social work presence in the hospital, which allows for doctors and nurses to easily call for intervention if they have concerns about a child.

They also support the maternity hospital and the CAMHS service at the Royal Infirmary.

But despite this, council officers said the disbanding of the team would lead to “no loss of resource and no loss of service”.

Considerations about cutting the team were first made after a review into children’s services in the council was concluded in August.

Notably, the period for staff and other concerned parties to participate in a consultation about the review overlapped significantly with the summer school holidays.

At an earlier education committee meeting on September 2, councillors unanimously voted to have council officers present a report to them if a proposal was to be made to cut the social work team.

But, the next day, the city’s childcare directorate told councillors that the social workers would be removed without a report being presented and assigned to other teams.

In late September, Cllr Hyslop told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the social workers were a “lifesaving” presence in the hospital.

He added: “They are distinct from social workers based in the city. The remit for them is to work with the most medically complex children and young people in Edinburgh.

“The families of children who attend special school, who have mental, life limiting, severe, complex medical needs, part of their routine is seeing social workers in hospital.

“It’s not just for the sick kids – it’s in addition to work with homeless pregnant women who get support through the team.”

The childcare directorate had suggested that the hospital’s social work needs could be covered by teams based elsewhere in the city.

Staff had criticised the cost-cutting exercise that recommended the team be disbanded, saying that its timing over the school holidays prevented some from responding.

Councillor Euan Hyslop. Photo © 2023 Martin P. McAdam www.martinmcadam.com

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.

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