Home-Start Plea To Council For Space For Outreaches

All Councillors found this an emotive issue and Councillor Billy Walker opened the discussion by saying, “Home-Start is in a very sad situation for funding. They have tried to have a meeting with the Minister  and this was not taken aboard. Then the new Health Minister Edwin Poots too would not meet them. They need in total £96,000 which is not a lot by Stormont standards. [caption id="attachment_16486" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Home-Start senior organiser Dorothy McMullan has asked Down District Council to help in finding temporary space for them to support their services threatened in Newcastle. "][/caption] “This sum will save the government hundreds of thousands in return. This issue has united all the parties across the board.  I therefore propose that the Council instructs its officers to go out and find them accommodation for the short-term. We need to help them in their time of need.” SDLP Councillor Eamonn O’Neill, who seconded DUP Councillor Billy Walker’s proposal to support Home-Start, expressed his frustration at what he described as another move by central government to pass on responsibilities to local councils. He said, “We do have a responsibility to help them. “But it will have a cost implication in that it is a resource we could be using to support other paying groups. It will be a cost to the ratepayer. The SDLP was the only party who did not support this budget proposal at Stormont because we believed that the outcomes had not been properly worked out and this is just an example of that. Now we are picking up the debris from this decision. Recreation Committee Chairman Cllr Mickey Coogan said, “The value of Home-Start has been outlined for our district on a number of occasions. We are all in agreement. Sinn Féin Cllr Willie Clarke MLA said that this was “potentially a disastrous situation.” SDLP Councillor Carmel O’Boyle said, “For a long time we have fought on behalf of Home Start to have their funding reinstated by the Department of Health, but our arguments fell on deaf ears. It is only right that we should do all we can to support this wonderful organisation, even if it is only on a temporary basis. “They require help for two mornings a week for six hours. We will try and help them with this. “We also decided at the meeting that we would write to the Trust to ask them to pay for the rental of this accommodation. It is the least they can do in the circumstances. The withdrawal of Government funding from this scheme is an absolute disgrace, in view of the outstanding work that Home-Start does.” The temporary solution may help Home-Start to continue meeting their responsibilities in the Ballynahinch and Newcastle communities, but Dorothy McMullan said in her letter that “Newcastle and Ballynahinch Home-Start lost their funding from the Department of Health in March and have been operating on reserves since then. “We have been encouraged by the cross-party support we have received from the Council and are doing our utmost to maintain our services despite our precarious position. We anticipate we will shortly have to close our Newcastle office base and desperately need to identify alternative, free temporary accomodation.” Home-Start are essentially looking for a temporary room possibly in the Newcastle Centre to maintain their services. Dorothy added, “We are continuing to lobby the Health Minister with the support of Down District Council and are also seeking alternative funding, so we hope this will be purely a temporary solution.” Alliance Newcastle Councillor Patrick Clarke also said after the meeting that “Home-Start have not been treated well by the government agencies considering their valuable contribution and it is encouraging that we as a Council will try and solve their accommodation problem in the short-term.” This is an issue that affects the very nature of the society we live in. If we cannot support the needy then we may be gravitating to an Americanised system when the poor and needy often fall through the poverty net and cannot avail essential services. Is this a slippery slope we are on?]]>