Kemback Street Consultation - Can Council get it right this time?

Monday evening's Social Work and Health Committee saw the latest episode in the sorry saga of the Kemback Street Resource Centre.  The council listened to two deputations. We heard an excellent presentation on behalf of Down's Syndrome Scotland.  This deputation posed a number of questions to the committee along the following lines:

1. Is the consultation to be taken seriously?
2. If it is a genuine consultation why is a clear recommendation to close the centre made in the report?
3. If the final decision is to be made at the end of the consultation why was Kemback Street excluded from the council's recent review of charges?
4. Who runs the council and makes the decisions, is the councillors or the officials?

The service users, parents and carers associated with Kemback Street have been treated shamefully by the council throughout this process.  The council have had a complaint against them upheld by the Care Inspectorate over the previous consultation, and the families have been given leave to petition for a judicial review.  I would have expected lessons to have been learnt. Instead we got a situation where service users, parents and carers and their representatives were 'telt' what was good for them by the SNP Administration.

I asked a question about how the parents and carers could have confidence in the consultation being genuine when the report recommends closure at paragraph 4.9.  I asked the Convener if he supported the closure he said that he did not, although earlier he had stated in relation to the personalisation agenda  that it was 'inevitable that a day centre will close.'  If it is not already his view that Kemback Street Resource Centre  should close then why did he allow that to be included in the report.  The content of the Committee Papers is a matter for the Convener.

The Labour Group tried to amend the report so that parents and carers had some say over the appointment of the 'independent consultant' - this attempt was flatly rejected.  If I were a parent or carer at Kemback Street I would find it difficult to have confidence in this process.

Notwithstanding what I have said above I think that it is hugely important that everyone associated with Kemback Street has their say in the consultation.  It is important that the council has as full a picture as possible on this issue.  It is also important that the council learn lessons on this issue and ensure that consultation is open, fair and transparent.