Read aloud or translate

Thousands sign to stop cuts to vital community link workers in Scotland

2 November 2023

The gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest in Scotland has never been wider. Community link workers are vital in helping the most impoverished communities, yet there are planned significant cuts to the workforce.

Community link workers help people with housing, benefits, debt, food insecurity, fuel poverty, physical inactivity, loneliness, abuse and much more. They also listen to people about what they need to be well and support them to achieve this. This allows doctors and healthcare staff to focus more time on diagnosing and treating medical conditions. 

However, there are planned significant cuts (at least one-third) to the community link worker workforce in Glasgow from April 2024. The funding for community link workers is short-term, insecure and unstable, meaning this is not a local budgetary decision but one rooted in national funding arrangements. 

We believe these cuts during a cost-of-living crisis will only widen the health inequalities in Scotland. To secure community link workers’ long-term future, we’ve joined thousands in signing a petition this week to stop the cuts.