Day centres to close (From This Is Wiltshire)

Day centres to close

5:33pm Tuesday 23rd January 2007

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Almost half of adults with learning disabilities who receive day support services from Wiltshire County Council will see their package of care change.

Of the 181 users of adult social care so far assessed by the county council 57 per are the most severely disabled and will have access to day centres in the future.

Forty per cent will need education or skills development while 2.5 per cent are not eligible for services and 0.5 per cent will be able to use new drop in centres.

Just over 500 users who receive day services and transport by the county council are being reassessed and this should be completed in March.

The county council plans to close Middlefield day centre in Chippenham along with Marlborough Resource Centre, Ashton Street in Trowbridge, Beckford Centre in Warminster and Sarum in Salisbury and replace them with a total of eight day centres but they will be different to what the existing centres offer and many users will be encouraged to access mainstream services in the community.

Devizes and Amesbury activity centres will remain and new centres will be set up in Trowbridge, Chippenham and Salisbury. Other centres may be provided in Corsham or Melksham, Warminster and somewhere else in North Wiltshire.

In a report to the county council's Cabinet on Tuesday the number of potential redundancies among staff at the day centres is 27 but Cabinet member John Thomson said no staff had been issued with a letter which would put them at risk of redundancy.

Carol Glenister, of Longcroft Crescent, Devizes, whose 29-year-old daughter severely disabled daughter Claire goes to Ashton Street raised concerns.

She told the Cabinet meeting of her fears that existing staff might leave due to the impending changes and that valuable work done by a theatre group at Ashton Street could be lost.

The county council is also looking at residential homes to provide social activities as an alternative to users going to day centres.

Mark Howie who owns homes in West Overton and Pewsey expressed concern.

He said: "These people need to go outside of the home for activities. We can't provide things like music and painting in-house."

Coun Thomson said: "At the moment we have 43 per cent of service users who will see change. We are not asking care home providers to sit users in front of the television and lock them in. If you are not able to provide activities we will have to make alternative arrangements."

No date has been set for the closure of day centres. Savings of £389,000 are expected to be made in 2007/8 by the changes.

Of the 250 people who receive transport from the county council to go to day centres or college 34 per cent have so far been told they are not eligible.

The Wiltshire and Swindon Users Network has received Lottery funding to set up a scheme to enable people who will lose their transport provision to travel on public transport.

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