Kinship carers fear loss of support over cutbacks

Circle Scotland chief executive, Liz Dahl says the council cuts will have a devastating impact on the families her organisation supports. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

WHEN the alarm goes off Suzanne Young has two young boys to get up, feed with breakfast, and send off to school before she heads to work.

The morning routine in her home in The Wisp is identikit to any parent of school-age kids – with one big difference: 54-year-old Suzanne is their “nan”.

Over in Newhaven 50-year-old Cathy Owens is doing the same – her boy is out of bed and dressed for school. Yet to him, a seven-year-old with ADHD, speech difficulties and a learning disability, she is his “gaddy”.

The parents of these young boys weren’t up to the job. They were neglectful because of their own learning difficulties, they were drug-addicted, they were criminal. Their children are now in the care of their grandparents and they have a multitude of their own issues as a result of their very early years.

And yet Suzanne, Cathy and 38 other kinship care families in Edinburgh are now facing a future without the support of the organisation which they say has made taking in their grandchildren possible.

Budget cuts will see Circle Scotland, based in Pilton, lose the £126,000 grant it receives from Edinburgh City Council to run its Kinship Care programme.

Now grandparents such as Cathy and Suzanne – as well as staff at the not-for-profit organisation – are hoping that councillors will not back the cut when the council debates the budget on February 12.

Suzanne, who runs a coffee shop and has an eight and seven-year-old to look after, says: “My daughter had a chaotic lifestyle, she was drug-dependent. I’ve had the oldest boy since he was a baby and the younger one from the age of four. It’s been like starting over again but at an age when you’re expecting to be a grandparent, to do all the fun things, to spoil them without having all the hard work. Instead that’s what my husband and I have got.

“Of course you want to take in your grandkids, it’s the obvious thing to do in a family, but it doesn’t mean it’s an easy decision. There are a lot of legal issues, the boys need extra support, and we had to deal with it all ourselves until I found out about Circle – they’ve been the best thing to happen to us. I feel like social work have let my boys down, Circle is the only place which has helped.”

She adds: “The staff at Circle listen to what we’re saying. They don’t try and tell us what to do, they work with us. If I have a problem they are the first place I would phone. I genuinely don’t know what I would do without them.

“One of my boys has ADHD and gets support from CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and someone from Circle comes with me to appointments. They are great advocates for what we do as carers and they also make sure we know about respite and other facilities and support available to us.