WESTBURY mayor Sheila Kimmins has shared concerns about the effect the redundancy of the area’s local co-ordinator will have on local families most in need.
Steve Hubbard has been Wiltshire Council’s adult services co-ordinator for Westbury and Dilton Marsh for three years, over which time he built up a lot of trust and contacts with some of the area’s most vulnerable residents.
Local area co-ordinators give people free support to obtain information, make practical and local connections and live the life they want to by taking time to get to know them, their families and carers. The co-ordinators help to identify people’s strengths, skills, talents and abilities. They support people of all ages, including those with disabilities and mental ill-health and their families and carers.
Cllr Kimmins told White Horse News she understands the service is changing to cover a wider area with fewer officers. Steve has been given notice of redundancy, believed to happen at the end of August.
“Westbury has some of the most deprived areas in the county and the percentage of children living in poverty is the highest in Wiltshire – 12.9%. It was with these families that Steve was working,” cllr Kimmins said.
“For people with mental health issues, cases are increasing. Some parents have been furloughed or lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and what is a family with three children supposed to do when it comes to having to buy new school uniforms, for example?
“Steve took it upon himself to make sure people got the support they needed – we have had a number of domestic abuse cases just left here in Westbury with no support and its through Steve that we have been able to, in one case, furnish a house for somebody who had nothing.”
Cllr Kimmins added, “This is such short sightedness of Wiltshire Council – Steve’s been here for three years and everybody trusts him. We need someone who knows the people and the area, who has the connections. These people are just being cast aside, when they are at their most needy.”
Cllr Kimmins commented on her understanding that the service is being changed so officers will cover a wider area. She explained, “If you are dealing with the whole of Wiltshire, you are not going to build up that relationship because you go in and deal with it and go again,” she said. “It’s a whitewash.
“It’s the people of Westbury that I’m concerned about. We have that need, yet we are cutting services
“The loss of this post comes at the time when vulnerable families, especially those on Universal Credit, will be losing the £20 top-up given by the government during lockdowns. The top-up will be stopped in October, which is the beginning of autumn and winter. Many families will be put into a position where they will have to make the choice of either feeding their children or keeping them warm, and with no coordinator, whom they know and trust, there to advise and point the way to help.
“All I can say to Wiltshire Council,adult services and its councillors is ‘shame on you’ for taking away support when it is most needed.”
Wiltshire Council had not responded to White Horse News’ request for a comment by our deadline.
