Social work chiefs in Aberdeen have drawn up plans to end support for dozens of ex-offenders in the city – despite fears that the move will lead to a rise in crime.
Councillors will be asked next week to approve the closure of the St Fittick’s House hostel in Torry and withdraw support for a national voluntary group that finds homes for offenders.
Sacro (Safeguarding Communities – Reducing Offending) manages 25 tenancies in the city for former criminals, while St Fittick’s House is a 14-bed council-run hostel that supported 44 people last year.
Local authority officials want to “discontinue” those services and create a new in-house team to try to save money and provide support for more people.
North East MSP Richard Baker, Labour’s justice spokesman, criticised the plans.
“My view is that it’s a disastrous recommendation,” he said.
“Sacro provide an invaluable service for offenders who have just been released and to close St Fittick’s House is not just bad for the offenders, it’s bad for public safety. Not having it is likely to result in more crime in the city.”
A Sacro spokesman said his organisation was concerned about the potential loss of service and representatives from the group had asked to speak to councillors at Thursday’s social work committee meeting.
In a report to the meeting, council officials admit the proposals would likely have a “major impact” on the council’s homelessness service, which is already in disarray.
The council has recently resorted to putting up homeless people in hotels because a chronic shortage of temporary accommodation has left it in breach of housing laws.
Homelessness among ex-prisoners potentially increases the chances of reoffending as well, according to the council’s own report.
The closure of St Fittick’s House would be “very stressful for employees, who will have to undergo redeployment or possibly redundancy”, although officials do recommend using the experience of staff to build up a new service.
If councillors scrap existing services, a new community-based team would be created, with a manager and four support workers.
Council officials said the new team would provide services for a “greater number of offenders than with the present residential model”, target resources more effectively and “improve community safety and social inclusion of offenders”.