Council chiefs 'raided' cash for child abuse victims to fund bigger staff pay offer

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Council chiefs have “raided” £7 million for child abuse victims to bump up their latest pay offer to striking workers.Local authorities were so short of cash they struck a deal with the SNP-led Government to free up the money this year.It follows criticism that victims have been enduring delays in getting payments from the state-backed redress scheme.Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: “It’s really concerning that next year’s funding for Redress Scotland is being raided in this way to help settle a staff dispute.“This decision is a damning indictment of the under-funding of councils by the Scottish Government and further evidence Humza Yousaf must intervene by providing more money to give staff the pay they deserve.”Schools closed yesterday as part of a three day strike after councils and the trade union Unison failed to reach an agreement on pay.The impasse has gone on for months and COSLA, which represents councils, tabled a “final” offer last week.The new deal involved an extra £80m, but no breakdown was published at the time.We can reveal £7m of the money was originally earmarked as the contribution by councils to Redress Scotland next year.The redress scheme applies to abuse that happened when the survivor was in a care setting and under 18 and provides payments of up to £100,000.Councils previously agreed £100m of funding over ten years to cover their share, but a paper by umbrella group Cosla says next year’s redress funding will be spent on the staff pay deal.The minute said a meeting took place between Cosla and Deputy First Minister Shona Robison on finding extra cash for a new offer.It stated that the DFM talked through the funding package based on “reconfiguring, reprofiling and reprioritising existing