Reykjavík councillor warns centralisation will strip expertise from districts

Pétur Marteinsson, a Reykjavík City Council representative for the Social Democratic Alliance, has criticised plans to centralise the city’s welfare, school and recreation services, mbl.is reported. He said the changes were rushed through to prevent discussion in the city council.

Under the proposed restructuring, four of the city’s service centres would be abolished in their current form. They would be replaced by two units: one for children and family services, together with school and recreation services, and another for social and housing services.

Marteinsson took part in a cost-cutting group where the proposed changes were discussed. He said valuable points had emerged, but that the proposals required further review. He said the matter was pushed through at a special meeting of the city executive committee while the city council was on recess, preventing a wider debate.

“An emergency meeting was called with 24 hours’ notice, a special meeting where the city executive committee could potentially complete the matter, because it carries out the city council’s duties while the council is on holiday. That was done to prevent discussion from arising about this issue,” Marteinsson told mbl.is.

He said specialists working in the city’s professional committees should have been involved and that the proposal would have improved through consideration by the full city council.

“Drastic changes are being made to the organisation of welfare, school and recreation services in Reykjavík. Specialist knowledge is being moved from the districts into a centralised apparatus in Borgartún or at Höfði. I fear, as I said in the cost-cutting group, that this goes against what is generally being done in Europe today. This kind of centralisation was introduced in many places 10 or 20 years ago, but services are now being moved closer to people again,” he said.

The changes would result in 86 city employees losing their jobs. A further 32 would be offered new or altered positions, while 54 would not continue in employment.

Marteinsson said the city was losing long-serving specialists who knew the districts, including social workers, psychologists and speech therapists.

He also criticised the timing of the changes, as schools were about to reopen. He said such extensive restructuring could cause anxiety among people who rely on the services.

“One can imagine that parents whose children are dealing with some kind of difficulty and who need to seek help from service centres will feel insecure. This will affect 400 employees and tens of thousands of residents, so I felt this needed more discussion and more careful preparation,” he said.