Lillian Cringles: Last News

Disabled people in Dumfries and Galloway could die because they cannot afford the electricity to power their vital medical equipment, a councillor warned this week. Councillor Willie Scobie raised his serious concerns at a social work meeting on Tuesday, and the region’s social work chief admitted she was “acutely aware” of the severe impact the cost-of-living crisis is having on people with disabilities.

Fatigue and burnout are the main reasons so many social services and care workers are off sick in Dumfries and Galloway, it has been revealed. Staff absence rates are on the increase in the council’s social work department and are roughly 25 percent higher than set targets. A report was tabled at the council’s social work committee on Tuesday which showed that the social work department had an average employee sickness absence rate of 11.48 days in 2021/22.

Dozens of elderly people who had to be rehoused in new care homes across the region just days before Christmas are now settled after a “traumatic” experience.

Social work staff have been praised for their emergency response during the “hardest year ever” in Dumfries and Galloway.

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Fifteen care home residents in Dumfries and Galloway have died of Covid-19 since the pandemic struck.The number was disclosed in a report to Dumfries and Galloway Council’s specially convened committee to continue authority business during the lockdown.And at last Friday’s meeting of the Ad Hoc Covid-19 sub committee, which is screened to the public via a webinar, Lillian Cringles, chief social work officer, gave an update of testing in the region’s 31 care homes.She told members how they had been working closely with the homes to reassure staff and residents that everything possible is being done to cope with the coronavirus crisis while maintaining regular testing.Ms Cringles said: “Since April 20 to June 7 there has been testing of 75