Leeds Skyline Service – the service which provides support to those living with HIV, their friends, family and carers, as well as providing educational services throughout Leeds – has announced that it has been saved from closure for a year.
As reported in South Leeds Life in October, the service was issued with a closure notice by Leeds City Council as part of cuts in public spending, and launched a campaign to fight the closure.
Skyline announced earlier this week that Cllr Lisa Mulherin, the Council’s Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing, and the Director of Public Health had written to tell them that “the council intend to offer an extension to your contract/s with a 5% cut in the value for a further year until 31 March 2017”, and that the decision was due to be approved by the Council’s Executive Board this week.
Jeni Hirst, Director of Service Development & Delivery at BHA Leeds Skyline, said that the decision “does mean a reduction to funding but, at 5%, allows us to continue providing a good quality support service. Although commissioners and City Councillors were doing their best to save the service in the wake of large-scale cuts in public health spending by the government there is no doubt that the great campaign run by service users and our supporters made a real difference. Together with everyone at BHA we want to thank you all for your support and the well-organised and effective campaign.”
HIV is still a highly stigmatised condition. The psychological and physical impact of living with HIV is such that the prevalence of mental illness in people living with HIV is far higher than in the general population, and people with HIV are more likely to be unemployed. 1 in 500 people in Leeds have HIV, and although there is not geographical data available, this issue undoubtedly affects many people who live in South Leeds.
Anyone requiring information or support can contact Skyline on (0113) 244 9767, visit their Facebook site, or website www.leedsskyline.org.uk.
Unfortunately these types of cuts are what the Tories call ‘austerity’ measures. They would never have been considered in the first instance under a Labour government. To quote Noel Gallagher: ‘the Tories don’t care about the vulnerable.’ Thank the Lord that on this occasion, they finally came to their senses………..Janine.