Edinburgh Sucks! | Rosendale wants frontline services cut

Children & Families

Rosendale wants frontline services cut - surprised?

By The Basa ⋅ September 30, 2007 ⋅

Word into us from the Community Learning & Development (CLD) staff are unhappy about their boss and the proposals he put to the meeting on Friday at Craigroyston to discuss the pending review of service. What’s new there you ask?

Well, while they are stating to Councillors that it is a review of management and staff in Community Learning and Development it is not. The managers are paid out of the Children and Families Neighbourhood Services budget, while all front line service Community Learning and Development Workers are paid out of CLD budget therefore the £850,000.00 to be saved from CLD will come from direct line services.

This means that your community centres will not be staffed and may well close, and the reason for closing will be that they are not used enough. Of course, don’t put staff in so can’t use - don’t use - we close.

Despite pressure from Rosendale and his cohorts prior to the meeting, the feeling in the room was to reject their proposal of 5 members of staff to participate in the review to identify cuts. The usual suspects were putting themselves forward e.g. Rab Byfield who would report directly to Rosendale on any individual who raised concerns at management’s behaviour. Colin Gough seemingly turned up with all the community centre leases possibly in the hope of having them scrapped and a proposal to put into sessional workers’ contracts that they couldn’t be on community centre management committees - it’s OK to work for us and look after the city’s children but don’t go making any decisions now.

We are told that the staff have had a belly full of the Rosendale followers who have all benefitted from supporting him. For example jobs without interviews, or a job for services rendered and have a message for both Mr. & Mrs. Rosendale:

Christine MacKay take a hike and take your corrupt husband and his band of merry thieves who have allowed budgets to be pilfered to cover fraud with you. Your little secret is out Mike, not only have the staff have been letting their figures walk over the keyboards they have been sharing the news of you corrupt regime with external bodies including HMI. Why did you insist all invoices related to a certain project not go through normal procedures and why did you insist that you dealt with and signed these invoices off? Why did you not sign off any other invoices only the City connect invoices? Why did you tell staff not to divulge information to the internal audit team? Why did David Hillson sneak into Waterloo Place when he was on secondment with another agency and spend the day on Christine Innes Business Managers machine altering figures? Was it a coincidence that it was a day the majority of staff were attending a course? Why did clerical staff tell a manager that they did not want to deal with invoices relating to ELLP OR DAVID HILLSON? It is all coming out Mike. The staff have had a vote of no confidence in you.

Phew! Not a happy band of workers at all, are they? We are also told that there is more information to come…. WooHoo - can’t wait.

The main problem we in EdSucks towers have with this is why on earth are the new LibDem/SNP administration taking any information from Rosendale or even his department - surely at leat the LibDems who were in oppositon know the cut of his cloth - they were asking enough questions about him in the last council. Why haven’t they sent the internal audit department, or indeed, hired forensic accountants in to the department to find out what they have done with all the money as the city has this ‘black hole’?