Care boss: day centre closures will make people 'less isolated' (From Bucks Free Press)

Care boss: day centre closures will make people 'less isolated'

2:08pm Wednesday 2nd June 2010 in News By Oliver Evans

Care boss: day centres closures will make people 'less isolated'

THE boss leading moves to axe council day centres says it would help people become less and not more isolated.

Buckinghamshire County Council’s Rita Lally is heading up plans to axe funding from 22 day centres and replace them with two or three large and two small facilities.

The move is likely to concern some as it will leave OAPs and people with learning disabilities miles from their nearest centre.

One senior Age Concern representative today said it was ‘frightening and very worrying’.

But Mrs Lally said ‘service users’ will have ‘more opportunities’ such as employment and education through new rules which give them the cash to spend how they choose.

She said: “I think people will probably be less isolated rather than more isolated.

“What this is going to get people doing is doing more for themselves if they are able to and the more they can do for themselves the more independent they will be and more fulfilling their lives will be.”

Check back later for more reaction to the plans.

The plan is being consulted on and bosses have published a map showing where future centres would go. See link at bottom of this story for more.

Mrs Lally, strategic director for adults and family wellbeing, said: “They would close, the ones that aren’t on that map.”

Councillor Patricia Birchley, the cabinet member responsible for the change, said: “It is no longer satisfactory for people to be spending their day with other people with similar disabilities.

“They told us they want to live lives of ordinary people – they want to be out in the community.”

The authority is trying to close a £27m black hole and spends most of its cash on social care. The day centre service costs £11m with a further £1m going on travel costs.

Cllr Birchley said: “From a financial point of view it is probably not been the best use of public money to be operating out of 22 different buildings.”

She said ‘purpose built hubs’ in two or three towns, High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Chesham or Amersham, would be ‘much better’ and provide other services such as healthcare.

Two smaller facilities will be at Buckingham and Burnham.

The existing centres were built in the 1980s and 1990s in a ‘piecemeal’ fashion and are ‘not entirely suitable anymore, they are not in the right location’ she said.

And Mrs Lally said: “There isn’t a presumption that it will be cheaper by any means.”

Asked about the threat of job loss, she said: “We haven’t planned any as a result of these changes but I wouldn’t rule it out.”

Most are owned and run by the council and five are owned by BCC but run by The Red Cross.

A surge in the number of older people and people with learning disabilities was adding to pressure, Cllr Birchley said and said the move would spread funding more equally between them.

Cllr Birchley, appointed to the cabinet last week, said: “I feel really passionate about this, I really want people in Buckinghamshire to have the best possible day and best possible opportunities.”