A council-run hostel in Brighton has been given a reprieve after plans to close it were shelved this afternoon (Thursday 24 November).
The decision ends uncertainty for up to 48 vulnerable adults who live at Glenwood Lodge, in Grand Parade, Brighton.
And it means that about 20 people – a mix of full-time and part-time staff – no longer face the threat of redundancy.
There were concerns that the proposed closure of Glenwood Lodge, which needs significant building repair work, would prove to be a false economy.
One person close to the debate said that it would have saved money for one council directorate but that would have been outweighed by more spending for another.
Yesterday (Thursday 24 November) the GMB union tweeted: “A major victory for GMB members in a Brighton and Hove City Council.
“Glenwood Lodge for vulnerable adults has been saved from the Green-council cuts. Jobs are safe. Service users keep their homes.”
The decision was made at a meeting attended by council chief executive Geoff Raw and senior colleagues yesterday afternoon.
But the council-run Bright Start nursery remains at risk of closure, with about 20 jobs at stake, as officials and leading councillors seek to make millions of pounds of budget savings.
More staff are also understood to be at risk in the field officer team, part of the safer communities service within the council’s housing, neighbourhoods and communities directorate.
The field officer team was set up about three years ago and employs the equivalent of up to seven full-time staff although recruiting has proved challenging at times.
And when they started, field officers were given hand-held devices with a mobile app that didn’t work.
The team has an annual budget of more than £300,000 and deals with thousands of complaints and incidents a year.
GMB Sussex branch secretary Mark Turner welcomed the decision to reprieve Glenwood Lodge, saying: “It was a half-baked idea.
“We’re glad that, after a meeting with senior management in adult social care, the council has agreed with our arguments.
“We understand that, at a meeting with the council’s chief executive and senior officers, it was agreed to look at other ways to save this money.”
“We will continue to fight to prevent the nursery being closed and jobs being lost.”
If the council want to save money we could just sack all the useless councillors.
Or the officer(s) who caused the £13m overspend on staff costs, which gets no specific mention here and has yet to be explained to anyone at all. More staff, probably WFH, at a cost of £13m and far fewer services – there is something very wrong here but nobody seems to be bothered about it.
There is no reprieve! It’s still closing! Thanks for letting the staff know via Brighton and Hove News!!
Glenwood is vital for homeless vulnerable adults which connects with local services, the council have made amends to an idea which needed a great deal of thought before publicly published, this is a major blunder by those councillors who assessed the situation without I would suggest knowing firstly housing, social housing,vulnerability, local connections with all services, and lastly but most importantly professional interaction between the council and homeless people in Brighton.
Unison have been fighting for it’s workers and colleagues holiday entitlements which should have been paid many moons ago unfortunately this show continues and new talks are planned.I hope for the sake of us all we can find a solution to this horrid misjudgement regarding payments to the council work force I believe the ongoing dispute helps only those not entitled or not aware (hardly possible given the amount of interest and longchavety), we have a great deal to be proud of in the council and working through Covid and supporting other world wide platforms is always top of the list however this appears to need an outcome and quickly so we can get on with supporting the local community, which we all do we great pride.