Charities share £500k as Border Caring Services winds up

Almost 20 different charities are celebrating after being given a share of £500,000 this month following the wind-up of Border Caring Services.
Representatives of Borders Caring Services with members of the charities which recently shared a £500,000 grant.Representatives of Borders Caring Services with members of the charities which recently shared a £500,000 grant.
Representatives of Borders Caring Services with members of the charities which recently shared a £500,000 grant.

The Selkirk-based charity, created in 1994 after Scottish Borders Council began outsourcing care support services, ceased operations last year.

The board blamed the loss of a large contract and a struggle to attract new members for the decision to wind up the charity, and it has now awarded £500,000 to 17 charitable groups working within the care sector.

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Chairwoman Val McNab said: “It has been a great joy to be able to award all these charities funds as a result of over 20 years of prudent management by the team.

“We know that we can’t change much of the many things that badly need changing, but if we have been able to make even a small contribution to make a difference and enable the values of Border Caring Services to be carried forward that is rewarding.

“We hope these awards will continue to raise awareness of the sector, bringing much-needed recognition to the role that many charitable groups and individuals provide in delivering care services within sector.

“This process has been very rewarding and a hugely positive outcome from the closure of the Borders Caring Services charity.”

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The company, which had 112 clients, has also created a new fund in honour of its founding director, Colin McNab, a former Hawick solicitor killed by cancer in January 2018 at the Beatson Hospital in Glasgow.

Val added: “Impressed by the various levels of care he experienced, he was also aware of the need for greater recognition of the true value of the care worker, whether in a care home or in a one’s own home.

“It is with Colin very much in mind that we are pleased to support an award in his name and which also carries the values of Border Caring Services forward.”

The Colin McNab palliative and end-of-life care prize fund will award yearly grants of £2,000 for the next five years to staff delivering palliative and terminal illness care within the care at home and housing support sector.

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It is open to individuals who are either backroom or fron-tline staff wishing to further their experience of or develop further skills in palliative and end-of-life care.

The Scottish Care charity will promote and administer the award, intended to help to foster and promote palliative care excellence and quality within the homecare sector, it says.

Organisations receiving a share of the £500,000 grant this month are the Salvation Army in Hawick; the Red Cross; Royal Voluntary Service Borders; the Eastgate Centre in Peebles; PoppyScotland Borders; Perfect Harmony Orchestra; Scottish Care; Walkerburn Old People’s Group; Berwickshire Association Voluntary Services; the Lavender Touch in Tweedbank; Newcastleton Old People’s Welfare Group; Newcastleton and District Community Trust; Lothian and Borders Transport Group; Border Carers; Scottish Borders Development Trust and the Margaret Kerr Unit at the Borders General Hospital in Melrose.