Changes to Edinburgh’s holiday hub scheme are a ‘step in the right direction’, but more needs to happen, according to a parent using the service and a city councillor.
And they expressed concern over two pupils who were unable to access holiday hub services this summer because service providers could not accommodate their care needs.
At the last meeting of the city’s Education, Children and Families Committee, councillors approved changes to the services which saw 192 new places added for the summer.
In addition, going forward, families will be able to access four weeks at the service, instead of three, bringing provision back to the levels experienced last year.
But it will come at a cost for some pupils, with space being prioritised for students with the most advanced levels of need, and then for those from families facing poverty and other stresses.
Labour councillor James Dalgleish, who convenes the committee, said he was glad more funding had been made available for the service at the council’s budget meeting in February.
But he also said that the demand on the service had become ‘unsustainable’ in recent years, and called for more support for the service going forward.
The changes to the scheme have come after consultations between council officers and parents of additional support needs (ASN) pupils.
Denise McGee-Dewar, a member of the REPAIR group which advocates for ASN pupils and their families, said the changes were a ‘good compromise’ between parents and city officials.
However, she said families and pupils have faced issues this summer, including two children who had their holiday hub time cancelled due to the council being unable to handle their needs.
She said: “Two families have had the allocations they were given cancelled. It was kind of a miscommunication [for one family] between the council and the provider.
“[The parent] is now sitting with nothing for the holidays, you can imagine how devastating that is.
“And then one family went along Monday of this week, it was due to his needs, and nobody had told her that there was no place for him.
“They were both refunded, but it’s not about the refund, it’s the child’s routine getting changed. The plans that [families made] will have to change. It’s been really difficult for them.”
Cllr Dalgleish said that in ‘isolated incidents’, due to safety concerns, the council has had to ‘make the difficult decision’ to amend or revoke the holiday hub offering to a family.
The scheme offers respite care to ASN pupils in Edinburgh, given them care, support and a social space over school term holidays.
Ms McGee-Dewar also said that parents had faced difficulties in signing up for the holiday hubs service for the next academic year, which starts in August.
The changes to the scheme means that space in the holiday hubs is being rationed in part based on the level of needs families have.
Families receiving benefits, facing poverty or with a single parent are all given priority.
However, in the questionnaire to sign up for holiday hubs for next year, parents were presented with a question asking if they met any of these criteria.
The only option was ‘yes’, and it was mandatory, meaning parents had to check off the question if they wanted to submit the questionnaire.
According to Ms McGee-Dewar, council officials said they would fix the form.
SNP councillor Euan Hyslop called the changes a “great next step”, but said that more needed to be done for the service, calling on other parties to back more funding for it at the budget meeting next February.
He said: “This is a great next step, but there’s no doubt that this is going to lead to a lot of young people losing out. I still don’t think that’s acceptable.
“I’m angry about this situation. So I’m putting a call out to colleagues to engage in the runup to the budget next year, because we’ll always have doors open.
“There are a group of families with very complex additional needs, with life-limiting conditions. Medical conditions that mean this is their only opportunity, really, to play with their friends, their peers.
“It’s not nice that we’re in the situation where we’re having to decide who gets and who doesn’t get.”
He continued to say that ASN parents he had spoken to were ‘broadly’ supportive of the council’s engagement over the past few months – but said that it came off the back of a year of officers ‘almost ignoring parents’.
And, he said that some of the children who would be excluded from the holiday hubs based on the newly introduced criteria had been using the service for years.
Cllr Dalgleish said: “If councillors are giving the impression that Holiday Hubs can simply be expanded through a large increase in funds at budget time, then they are not being totally clear with the public. Much more work is needed on this issue, and I am committed to doing that.
“This is fundamentally an issue around locating skilled people who can provide this service, potential cuts to our council budget in the near future will also make our task more difficult.
“I will, alongside many other councillors, be making the case for increasing support for Holiday Hubs, as I know how valuable this service is.
“I want to thank all the parents and carers who have given up their time to share invaluable thoughts and views on holiday hub support which has got us to this positive point.”
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
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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