A father and son have called cuts to ESF funding, which supports organisations like Mencap, "despicable" and said it would have a "dreadful impact" on vulnerable adults and families.
34-year-old Peter Livingstone has been using the services of Mencap since he was four and started at the nursery and has been working with the charity ever since with it most recently providing him with employability support and training so that he can live an independent and fulfilled life despite his learning disability.
Mencap has recently announced that due to the loss of the European Social Fund, 50 members of staff who work in its employment services could be made redundant, as the UK Government funding will be 50% less than they had previously been receiving.
Read more: Mencap staff 'placed on protective notice' due to ending of ESF funding
Peter and his father Jim said that this employment service has provided him and many other learning disabled adults with invaluable support, training and work placements that have helped him grow and develop, and that cuts to this will have a devastating impact on thousands of people and their families.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Jim said: "Peter started with Mencap when he was four years of age in their nursery and since then it has become a really important part of his life in terms of helping him with his development and us as a family by providing advice and support.
"He has been helped and supported by Mencap for 30 years, but in more recent years, the last ten or so, he has had more direct support from its employability scheme, this is what had been funded by the European Social Fund.
"This has led to Peter receiving skills training and development from Mencap, along with help with interviews and job applications, along with having a series of job placements and while they have not been paid, they have been hugely valuable to Peter.
"Ultimately Peter’s objective is to live a productive and fruitful life as an independent adult and he has every right to do that.
"His dream is to get a job and Mencap has been great in developing his skills and knowledge and helping him find work.
"It is also a key part of him being an independent adult, Peter doesn’t want to be sitting around all day and is a very busy guy who loves art and music projects and loves being around people. He is definitely a people person and very good with customers."
Peter said: "Without the service and support Mencap has provided me I would really be at a loss.
"I enjoy the experience of working and learning new skills, like how to use a till and I am proud of the achievements that I have had so far.
"Even though we have qualifications like NVQs, people with learning disabilities are often overlooked for jobs which can be very unfair."
Jim said that he feels betrayed by the government, who assured people that the ESF funding would be fully replaced and is disappointed that politicians have not done more to address the issue.
It is understood that the end of ESF funding could lead to the loss of service for 17,000 people and will affect 1,700 employees who support them across multiple organisations.
He continued: "For Mencap this is going to be dreadful and it has been known about for months and months and around 50 great members of staff could be made redundant because the government will not replace the funding that it said that it would.
"They are completely silent about the matter. I wrote to all of my MLAs in my constituency about the issue and our MP and while I received some helpful responses from some, I was flabbergasted that one MLA was not aware about the funding cuts.
"There are 800 staff likely to lose their jobs in a variety of organisations and here was an MLA who was unaware of the problem.
"Sadly I think the truth is that some politicians don’t feel that votes don’t matter from people with learning disabilities because they are not their key voting base, even though they are some of the most marginalised and vulnerable people in the country.
"The British government have behaved scandalously, Boris Johnson said that the ESF would be back-filled and the money would be there and now we discover it is a 50% cut.
"It is anywhere between 50 and 90 million, which for the UK government is diddly squat, it is a rounding figure and they could easily fund this, but it is not a vote winner.
"For people like Peter, who is lucky to have his parents and his sisters, but there are a lot of learning disabled adults with no family and what are they going to do? They have been left high and dry, it is despicable, I cannot believe the government and our local politicians have not dealt with this problem."
Over 50 members of staff at Mencap's employment services have been placed on protective notice as a result of the funding cuts.
Speaking about the protective notice announcement Grainne Close, Mencap NI Director said: “We have had to make the difficult decision to place our staff on protective notice as we approach the end of ESF funding on 31st March. Unfortunately, with no guarantee of replacement funding and the knowledge that any replacement funding will be at least 50% less than before, it is no longer sustainable for the organisation to deliver services at this level beyond the end of March 2023.
“The Mencap NI Executive team have looked at all options and tried to find alternative solutions however with the current situation and lack of clarity from government departments this has proved exceedingly difficult. The ending of these vital services will have a direct impact on people with a learning disability into employment and will also have a direct impact on their social and emotional wellbeing. With no local government in place, vital support organisations are being left in a precarious position, and are being forced to remove access to services which enrich the lives of some of the most vulnerable in our society
“We need local government officials to do the right thing by providing resource and support to allow these services to continue.
“Our colleagues in Mencap NI, who work in communities across Northern Ireland are highly skilled and dedicated, having built up many years of expertise in supporting people with a learning disability to access training opportunities and jobs. They are doing all they can to ensure continuity of services, whilst also trying to deal with their own personal circumstances in this difficult situation”.
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