Local Councils figuring out how to implement Treasury-driven social services cuts are skating on thin ice. Ice that can crack. For the last three months Orkney Islands Council has tried to ignore and – when that failed – has attempted to face down a tightly-organised community-based campaign to save the on-site wardens in Orkney's sheltered housing. It has been a single-issue campaign with current parallels the length and breadth of the UK.

Background    

Sheltered housing is essentially an intermediate stage of housing for frail or vulnerable over-60s, a stage between living in one's own house and living in expensive full-time care. Sheltered housing leaves the tenant with a large measure of autonomy but in a small, manageable flat, overseen by a warden who offers regular visits and an individually tailored range of support.  A key point is that sheltered housing cannot be defined as 'sheltered' without a warden presence.

The Introductory Pack given to all new Orkney tenants spells it out:

'There is a Warden on site 7 days a week from 8.30am till 5.00pm, with a lunch break between 1-2pm.  There is a sleep-in warden each night between 10pm and 8.30pm.'

Aims  –  what is this service for?

To enable older adults to live as independently as possible in their own homes ensuring that their rights, freedom of choice and dignity are promoted and respected.

Objectives – what should this service achieve?

This service should:

1. Assist and support other agencies in the provision of care to meet the assessed needs of tenants as identified in individual care plans.

2. Promote quality of life – physical, social, emotional and spiritual.

3. Respect confidentiality at all times.

4. Promote independence and self-esteem while respecting dignity and privacy.

It is a noble prospectus. All frail elderly are free to apply for sheltered housing.  There is a 12 page application form. Their needs are assessed and, if their application is successful, they can then sell up their home or give up a tenancy, and enter sheltered housing on the basis of these promised levels of care.Except that... 

In brief     

During the late summer, as part of an alleged 'consultation' process, it was announced to Orkney's sheltered housing tenants that the familiar presence of their on-site wardens was going to be extended into the community, but that they would experience no diminution of service. The new policy was passed in secret committee in September. It was ratified, again in secret, at full council in October. Shockingly it then emerged that, far from there being no diminution of service, the on-site warden service was due to be scrapped and replaced by a pitiful, emergency scheme comprising – at any one time and for the whole of Orkney's far-flung mainland – a single 'mobile responder' in a small Corsa van. The spin now put on the decision was that this responder, triggered by various telecare sensors in people's homes, would service a much wider public.  One man, Calum Morrison, a neighbour of the sheltered housing tenants in Rae's Close, Stromness set out digging, trying to find out the score. He spoke to tenants, wardens, officials, and phoned nearly every councillor...

He found evidence not just of lies by officials but of systemic neglect and ignorance by councillors.  Of the 21 'independent' councillors happy to pick up a £15K+ salary, only 3 had briefly visited sheltered housing tenants (at tenants' request) and a further 2 had rolled up to break bad news. The Chair of Social Services was not even aware of the existence of some of the key documents governing sheltered housing quoted above! One councillor couldn't remember how he had voted. Another hadn't realised that in voting for mobile responders he was voting wardens out of existence. Needless to say none of the 21 councillors had troubled to put removal of wardens in their election manifesto. Dereliction of duty and ignorance of elementary facts were bad enough. When this was compounded by a lack of awareness or interest in the shock, dismay, sleepless nights and worsened health conditions of many tenants, it was clear that this was no mere democratic deficit, but a dark day for Orkney's reputation as a decent, caring, face-to-face society.

By mid-November, and joined by the present writer, Calum Morrison's personal mission took off into week after week of front-page coverage in The Orcadian and Orkney Today, illuminated by the photojournalism of Orkney Media Group, and given dramatic emphasis by incisive coverage on BBC Radio Orkney. The tenants had at this time unanimously nominated Calum Morrison and myself as their lay advocates.  However the Director of Community Social Services walked out of his first scheduled meeting with the tenants, arrogating to himself the right to meet tenants without their representatives being present. He even went on Radio Orkney to attempt to justify this ludicrous and abusive position.

Commentators began to see what was happening, not just as the most focussed campaign for justice in Orkney for years, but as an absolute watershed issue for the relationship between the Council and the public. Nevertheless, despite a big petition, despite facing seemingly universal public condemnation, and despite Calum Morrison's and my own addresses in the Council Chamber in early December, pleading for the issue to be referred back, only 9 councillors voted to suspend standing orders, and the policy was confirmed.  The wardens would be removed early in the New Year...

Then on February 2^nd 2010 Orkney Islands Council, astonished in defeat, fell through the ice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8495120.stm

As it did so, the Council itself split.  In a tragi-comic press release councillors blamed their officials for 'misinforming' them. But of course the deeper, colder story is a story not just of official deception, but of an utter failure of democratic scrutiny by councillors. Only when the Council was threatened with a judicial review in the Court of Session – and only when the Scottish Legal Aid Board granted aid both towards two interim interdicts in Kirkwall Sheriff Court and towards seeking a judicial review in Edinburgh – did the Council wake up to its failings and to its responsibilities.

Listen, live or on iPlayer, if you can to BBC Radio Orkney's Evening Programme, Tuesday 16^th February, 18.05 – 19.00 when councillors and officials will attempt to explain where it all went wrong. If there is any more spin – heaven forfend! – we will nail the nonsense in the next issue of democraticgreensocialist.org

Footnote In England there are apparently 118 cases of councils or private providers trying to remove wardens from sheltered housing but now facing judicial review.  Three cases have been won in the High Court in London, due to the able advocacy of Yvonne Hossack, an indefatigable pro bono solicitor who devotes her work to the disabled and elderly.  Orkney, however, is the first known case anywhere in the UK that has been won outright by campaigning pressure and without actually entering court. What is the wider Scottish picture on this issue?

Campaigning Insights     If your area is facing warden removal, or if you want insights into how the campaign was conducted, feel free to contact me on stripthewillow68@yahoo.co.uk

John Aberdein