Glasgow Turning Point 218 at risk of collapse after budget cut

Susanne Napier has been working with charity Turning Point Scotland for two decades and is the lead union representative.

She has been working with Turning Point 218, a service that offers support to women with complex needs as an alternative to prison, amid a string of cuts.

She told the Glasgow Times: "More than 50 per cent of our budget has been taken. It’s ludicrous.

"The tender has been cut to an unworkable amount of money.”

Turning Point 218 has been slapped with over £1 million in cuts since 2020 by Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government.

The service once helped up to 60 women in Greater Glasgow between a 12-bed residential unit and a community outreach programme.

But in 2020, £200,000 was cut from Turning Point 218, forcing the charity to scrap its community care service.

In March this year, Glasgow City Council withdrew £292,000, forcing the charity to reduce to 8 beds.

The cut also meant the service could only support women with a criminal history instead of being offered as a preventative measure, Susanne says.

A spokesperson for Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership said the service was reduced from 12 beds to eight in March "in line with demand" following a joint review with Turning Point.

Susanne said: "We used to support women who were in danger of having a criminal justice background but that was changed.

“I know of women who have gone out and deliberately committed crimes so they could get a criminal justice history that would enable them to derive support from our service. It’s ridiculous.”

It was announced on September 6 that a further £850,000 from Turning Point 218's budget would be axed, leaving the service with an "unworkable" budget of £650,000.

Susanne said: "This service cannot run on the pittance they're offering.

"We are now talking about a service that helps just four women in Glasgow - that's a drop in the ocean.

"We have a constant waiting list. We support women who have nowhere else to go."

The charity was started as an alternative to custody in 2005 amid spiralling suicide rates at women's prison HMP Cornton Vale, Susanne told the Glasgow Times.

She said the women were often repeat offenders with substance abuse issues but were rarely convicted for violent crimes.

She said: "They weren't a danger to society they were women who were desperate, and maybe working the streets and had a history of abuse.

"Instead of just putting folk in prison with no support, we had a programme which offered psychotherapy, psychoeducation, detox from substances, and routes out of offending."

Susanne said: “Turning Point makes good use of its funding. This is a slap in the face.

“I can’t think of another group of women in our society that are as disadvantaged as the individuals that we support.

“The vast amount of women that we support have suffered childhood sexual abuse, violence, domestic abuse. They are caught in a cycle of deprivation, a cycle of addiction.

"They have suffered major trauma and violence on a scale that most of us couldn’t imagine."

Unite, the union representing staff at Turning Point 218, is demanding an urgent review of the cuts to the service.

Patrick Mackay, operations director at Turning Point, said the charity shared Unite's concern for the future of the 218 service.

He added: "Glasgow City HSCP is currently tendering for an “accommodation with support- female residential service.” within its wider criminal justice framework tender.

"The budget for this service is a maximum of £650,000 per annum. From the service specification, we can see that this “new” service will be predominately the same as the existing 218 service.

"We were dismayed when we received the tender documentation as we had recently completed a full review of the service, agreed the service specification and a budget for the service of £1.37 million.

"TPS had no prior knowledge of Glasgow City HSCP intention to cut the budget for the service by approximately 50%.

"A residential provision as currently configured is not sustainable with that level of funding.

"From reading the service speculation within the ongoing tender it is our understanding that the service will provide eight beds."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said funding available for community justice had not been reduced, nor had local authorities been asked to reduce any specific funding within that.

They added: “Decisions about the provision and commissioning of individual community justice services, including any re-tendering exercises, are a matter for local authorities based on local needs.”

It is understood that £113 million would be made available to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) for local services to respond to their own needs. The local ADPs are responsible for distributing the funding.