Looming cuts to voluntary services could impact on the city’s most vulnerable, according to a charity leader.
Dundee City Council announced it would have to cut £23 million from its budget in 2016/17 last week.
Now, Christine Lowden, of Dundee Voluntary Action, has said third sector services, which help the city’s most vulnerable, will be left in “very difficult” positions.
Christine, the acting chief executive of the city charity, said: “There is no more fat to trim, which means we will be seeing cuts to services — and that could include those that provide
support to the most vulnerable in the city.
“I don’t think there is any doubt there will be cuts to voluntary services.
“Third sector organisations have been working on providing the best possible services with what funding is provided, but you can only draw so much blood from a stone.
“The cuts in funding from the council will also likely affect the amount of funding we get from elsewhere as other parties tend to match the amount given by the local authority.
“A whole raft of services provided by the third sector could see cuts. Areas affected could include child services, homeless services and alcohol and drugs services.”
Ms Lowden said the council had warned savings would be have to be made to the voluntary sector, but had given no indication on how deep the cuts would go.
She said: “We have been working in partnership with the local authority to look at how decisions will be made on funding cuts.
“As of yet we still haven’t been given the percentage of cuts to expect.
“But we were told the council would have to make cuts across a range of services.
“Previous to last year, we had to take 8% worth of cuts to the services — anymore will soon prove to be very difficult for a lot of services to maintain the same level of service.”
Finance spokesman Councillor Willie Sawers said no decisions have been made on how we will implement these savings.
He added: “We are looking at ways to minimise the impact by restructuring the way we deliver services.
“I would like to reassure people across Dundee that protecting frontline services is our priority.”