Murray Royal Walled Garden clients fear payment cut

Mar 19 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A GROUP of Murray Royal out-patients fear their payments for working at a famed Fair City tourist attraction may be axed.

Historically, the 40 clients – all on medication, social benefits and working at the Perth and Kinross Association of Voluntary Services-managed Walled Garden – receive daily ‘incentive payments’ of £3.04.

But due to escalating budget constraints the NHS is considering scrapping the token wages to save about £14,000 annually.

At an on-site meeting this week, NHS Tayside Primary Care community health services development manager Frances Bannister told anxious workers she could not justify the historical arrangement to NHS stakeholders.

But Ms Bannister, understood to have attended the meeting on the condition of no media presence, agreed to defer a decision on payments until June.

Walled Garden worker Ian Petrie (62) said he and his out-patient peers at the Pitcullen House cafe, craft shop and joinery site were “extremely worried”.

“It’s obviously a token amount but it’s an enormous benefit because people like to get their wage at the end of the week,” he said.

“We’re happy to have anything really, and without these jobs half of us would end up back in Murray Royal.

“All of us have been in-patients at one time or another but at the Walled Garden we find solace and a sense of achievement.”

Mike Walsh, who manages the Walled Garden and its sister facility Wisecraft in Blairgowrie – where mentally ill workers do not receive payment – said Ms Bannister was seeking alternative funding.

“She (Ms Bannister) took on board the importance of the incentive payment to our clients and granted a stay of execution to June,” he said.

Contacted about the issue by the PA, Perthshire MSP Roseanna Cunnigham said she was “relieved and pleased” that NHS Tayside had deferred a decision on axing payments.

Mr Walsh described the 16-year-old Walled Garden – leased from the NHS by PKAVS – as a “fantastic project” totally reliant on NHS and council funding.

He said policy was to help integrate out-patients back into the community.

Breakdown of the incentive payment was 33p an hour and 50p for attendance, with all 40 out-patients working part-time, with the biggest wage earner taking home £14.

“It’s not about the money, it’s the fact that they’re getting a wage packet – they’d be happy if it had no money inside but just their name on it as recognition of the work they put in,” said Mr Walsh.

“It costs social services about £7 a day to place a client with us, whereas it’s £460 a day minimum in Murray Royal and in a closely monitored ward environment, it could be double that.”

Mr Walsh, who has sourced funding from various agencies, such as Comic Relief, Paths to Health and Powerful Choices, said he would be delighted to hear from potential sponsors or donors.