IN the context of over 300,000 excess deaths across Britain over the past decade of austerity, Glasgow’s most vulnerable are yet again under attack as the health and social care partnership (HSCP) announced cuts earlier this year which amount to almost £22 million.

These cuts include the loss of 197 full-time posts from vital front-line services such as the Community Links Programme, where Community Links practitioners (CLPs) make critical socio-economic interventions in communities that have been identified as the most deprived by the Scottish Deep End Project.

CLPs are based in medical practices across the city and are employed by third-sector organisations such as the Health and Social Care Alliance and We Are With You, which are awarded contracts by the HSCP.

The kind of interventions that links workers make in areas of deprivation involve, for example, issuing food or fuel vouchers to people experiencing financial hardship or connecting individuals to services within their local community to address social isolation and mental health concerns.

CLPs work to embed the GP practice in the community it serves by linking with multiple organisations that tackle the different consequences of poverty, including foodbanks, mental health charities, integration networks and more.

In an era where many services are increasingly being delivered online, links workers are one of the only public-facing roles that remain, working to address poverty and the health outcomes of poverty.

At present, Glasgow is served by 60 CLPs with 52 being contracted by the HSCP. The announced cuts will see this number slashed to 42, resulting in what the Deep End GP group have called “short-sighted” and “catastrophic” impacts on Glasgow’s most vulnerable.

With research from 2021 indicating that men from Glasgow’s poorest areas die on average 15 years earlier than men from the wealthiest backgrounds, we are facing what can only be described as life-threatening and life-limiting cuts.

However, CLPs employed by the Health and Social Care Alliance have not taken this news lightly, and after over a year of organising, these workers have achieved union recognition from their employer with GMB. This is a crucial first step in protecting these jobs and the service they provide for the long term.

Up to this point, those affected most by HSCP cuts, service users and workers who deliver these services, have not had their fair say in the decision-making.

The HSCP has stated its commitment to the links programme, however this is undermined by its assertion that there is not enough money to fund the current level of full-time posts, leading to an expected reduction from full-time to part-time roles come April 2024.

But now that CLPs in Glasgow have union recognition, there is scope for workers themselves to take more of a leading role in these discussions.

The HSCP’s proposal to reduce the number of hours CLPs spend based in GP practices will make the role unsustainable for many workers, who rely on their full-time income.

It will also directly affect service users who already struggle to access people-facing support in the context of wider cuts to similar services, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.

These cuts form part of a wholesale attack on the working class and society’s most vulnerable. As wages have stagnated for most and prices have gone up for everyone, services providing socio-economic first aid are also being slashed, leaving many with nowhere left to turn.

GMB Scotland policy and external affairs officer Rory Steel has written to First Minister Humza Yousaf to advocate the essential nature of this service.

In a statement released by GMB on Monday, Steel cited the Scottish government’s commitment to tackling poverty, arguing that “the First Minister is right to prioritise poverty and reduce the damage inflicted on so many lives but it is easy to make promises and talk about priorities.”

He continues: “What is needed right now is action. The CLPs are doing vital, life-changing work to protect the health of people in some of our most-challenged communities. That work should be reinforced not threatened.”

To mount an effective fightback, trade unions representing workers affected by cuts have an opportunity to link in with communities who are also affected.

Through their remit, CLPs are uniquely placed to facilitate this, as they work closely on a day-to-day basis with a range of community services and the remarkable individuals who run them as leaders of our communities.

And now they have experience organising, as they have done so within their own workplace.

Already we have seen an outpouring of support from service users and their families, community organisations, GP practices and a range of other healthcare professionals, all of whom recognise the importance of the CLP role.

Glasgow’s most vulnerable communities and the workers who serve them are experiencing attacks from multiple fronts.

The most appropriate defence is therefore one that is co-ordinated and takes account of the whole picture by linking together the different sides of funding cuts, from the workers to the service users.

The fight to save the Community Links Programme has the potential to form a focal point for a wholesale fightback against cuts to vital services, and one to watch as the months roll on.

Stephanie Martin is a former Community Links Worker and is a GMB member. To read more about the work of CLPs and support the campaign, please follow @DeepEndGP and @AllianceScot on Twitter.