Issue - meetings

NOTED that deputations were made by the following groups/individuals, the main points of which are recorded below:

a.         Save Autism Services (Deputee -Mary Langan) against the budget proposals highlighted in the call-in including:

1.  The level of savings proposed and changes to care packages would put vulnerable people at risk.

2.  Previous representations by service users, families and carers against the closure of day centres had not been taken into consideration.

3.  The Council should consider keeping the day centres open until satisfactory alternative arrangements were in place.

NOTED in response to questioning by the Committee:

4.  The Ermine Road Day Centre, proposed as an alternative to the Roundway Centre, was not suitable provision for people with autism, who needed more specialist support. 

5.  It had taken service users 6 months to settle from the 2013 move from Ermine Road to the Roundway and a further move could be detrimental to their health and progress.

6.  People with autism required consistency of staff working with them and the retention rates for personnel in this sector were low posing further risks to the wellbeing of service users and their carers.

7.  The Acting Director of Adult Social Services explained that in the last 3-4 years the Council had not made any placements at in-house learning disability day centres, as personal budgets were used by service users to manage their care via direct payments.  Some service users opted for the Local Authority to manage their budgets.

b.         Haynes Relatives Support Group (by Heath Martin and Emel Teymur) against the proposals to cut day centre provision, particularly for those with dementia, including:

1.  The Haynes and Grange Day Centres had only recently risen to a good level of service further to the 2011 budgetary cuts.  The Haynes was a centre of excellence and should be protected.

2.  The uncertainty was causing service users and their families distress and short term cuts should not be made until all stakeholders were satisfied that a decent, alternative provision was in place.

NOTED in response to questioning by the Committee:

3.  The level of care and activities provided by individual carers in the home was not comparable to the service provided at a day centre. The proposals would require service users to travel around the Borough, which could prove difficult within personal budgets and would mean additional work for carers and families.

4.  Currently service users were able to spend up to six hours a day at the Haynes Day Centre for £34.  Carers in the home would cost twice as much.  Ms Tarka clarified that day centres were subsidised by more than £400,000 each year for 18 placements a day.  The daily cost to the Council would be provided.

Action: Beverley Tarka

5.  Helena Kania (representative of the Local Involvement Network (LINk)) expressed that the cuts would impact on the physical and mental heath of service users and their carers.

6.  Ms Tarka explained, in response to claims that there would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5