Contact your councillor, MSP or MP about the Edinburgh care home closures

Here’s a draft letter for sending to Councillors, MSPs and MPs about the proposal to close care homes.  Please write to your local councillor’s, your MSP and your MP.  You can use the text below, but even better to adapt it and include your own thoughts and comments.  You should get a reply and if you do please forward it to the Another Edinburgh is Possible Campaign via edinburghjustrecovery@gmail.com

You can download this file to find out who your elected representatives are and how to contact them

You can find more information about the closures on the campaign blog https://anotheredinburghispossible.org

Dear                ,

I am writing to request that you join the council unions and the families of residents in making a stand against the proposal to close five publicly run residential care homes in Edinburgh.  

Currently the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board (EIJB) will meet in August to consider a proposal to close the five homes.  Fords Road, Clovenstone, Jewel House and Ferrylee homes are to be shut completely and Drumbrae is to become a facility for medically led care of the elderly. 

These closures will have a major negative impact on the provision of residential care in the city, on the care workers who work in the homes and on the lives of the residents who will be uprooted and scattered around the city.  Disgracefully, there was no public consultation before news of the planned closures was released tocare home workers, less than two weeks before the June meeting of the EIJB.

In the wake of the Feeley report, and in the clear knowledge that demands for residential care will continue to rise in years to come, the actions of the EIJB are indefensible.  Care homes are people’s homes, and the board has shown scant concern for the lives of the residents or the livelihoods of those who care for them.  Moreover, they show a contempt for local democracy and accountability.

As an elected representative I expect you to take the side of the residents and the care home workers. Please let me know how you plan to show your opposition to the EIJB plans.

Signed