Agenda item

Remodelling Day Care Services

Decision:

Having considered an officer report, and presentations by the Cabinet

Member for Health, Well-Being & Older People, Councillor Chris Best, Mr Nick

O’Shea, a patron of Lewisham Mencap and Helen Bashford, the mother of a

service user, the Mayor agreed that:

(i) officers proceed to a formal three month consultation with service users

and their families on the following proposals for the future modelling for day

services and transport, and their associated savings as follows;

(ii) the Intensive Support (ISR) service for people with profound learning

disabilities and complex needs currently at Leemore moves to the Ladywell

Centre;

(iii) a drop in service be commissioned for those adults with a learning

disability who need only ‘light touch’ support.

(iv) the Council’s directly provided day service offer be consolidated and the

Council be the direct service providers only for those people with the most

complex needs, specifically the specialist Dementia Service, the

Challenging Needs Service (CNS) and the Intensive Support Service (ISR)

and additionally the in-house service retains management of its sheltered

employment schemes;

(v) the older adults service users (i.e. the non-Dementia service) offer be

consolidated with the existing providers of older adult day services in the

borough; Housing 21 at Cinnamon Court, Cedar Court and Hestia at the

Calabash Centre;

(vi) all other service users, primarily adults with a learning disability and

adults with physical disability/ long term conditions be allocated a

personal budget/ direct payment and supported to plan their own service

using those budgets either individually or through pooling the budgets with

others;

(vii) the Ladywell Centre be identified as the core complex needs centre

for adults with disabilities and be the recognised as the main office base

for the in-house provision;

(viii) the buildings known as Mulberry, Leemore and Naborhood remain

open but are developed as community hubs rather than specific day

centres. The buildings will thus become multi use centres for service

delivery with an established presence for disability services, but will also

be used by third sector providers who help deliver the Council’s

community inclusion and neighbourhood agendas and this proposal be

developed in partnership with the Culture and Community Development

Team’s as part of the review of grant aided organisations and assets;

(ix) the buildings be considered as part of the Community Services

Asset portfolio and rental and running costs are not recovered as

income but be offset by savings or capital receipts currently

related to other assets which can be rationalised;

(x) the use of in-house Door2Door transport be reviewed, with some

routes for the most complex service users being retained, but otherwise,

where an individual meets the eligibility threshold for Council funded

transport, they are offered a direct payment to arrange their own transport

separately or with others;

(xi) the discretionary transport service to the evening clubs be withdrawn, with

some discretionary transitional support put in place where there may be

significant detriment for current passengers who live on their own or at home

with their families and Officers work with Lewisham Mencap, as well as

affected users and their families, to explore Alternatives;

(xii) the change to transport arrangements for the evening clubs does not

require formal consultation as these are not commissioned services and

people are not referred to them as part of their care plan. However,

officers as a matter of good practice consult with affected users, their

families and Lewisham Mencap as a separate process within the same

timescale; and

(xiii) prior to agreement to consult, note be taken that officers will have held a

number of briefing and information sessions on the proposals with affected

service users and their families to ensure that the proposals are clear and to

begin a Frequently Asked Questions sheet to ensure further clarity through

the formal consultation process.

Minutes:

The proposals were presented by the Cabinet Member for Health, Well-Being

& Older People, Councillor Chris Best, who stressed that all the proposals

were for consultation in the forthcoming three month period.

The Mayor was addressed by Nick O’Shea who described himself as a patron

of Lewisham Mencap and a Volunteer at the Tuesday Club. Mr O’Shea

strongly opposed the proposals which he believed would have an adverse

impact on service users.

Helen Bashford, a mother with a daughter who was a Day Centre user, next

addressed the Mayor. She praised the current provision and said she believed

the current proposals were not realistic and implementation should be delayed

pending further consideration.

In response, Councillor Best advised the Mayor that the anxieties which had

been expressed were understandable but that the three month consultation

period which was being proposed would allow ample time for the Council to

engage service users and their representatives in meaningful conversations

and meetings about the way forward.

In concluding, the Mayor explained the budget context and the necessity to

look at remodelling service provision. He feared that doing nothing would only

lead to future changes taking place anyway but in a much less considered

fashion given the financial pressures facing the authority. He promised the

three month consultation would allow for genuine dialogue and no changes

would be made without a further report being considered at Mayor & Cabinet.

Having considered an officer report, and presentations by the Cabinet

Member for Health, Well-Being & Older People, Councillor Chris Best, Mr Nick

O’Shea, a patron of Lewisham Mencap and Helen Bashford, the mother of a

service user, the Mayor, for the reasons set out in the report:

RESOLVED that: