Trades unions have been invited to make representations as part of the current consultation on the Council’s proposal to stop providing the Douglas Bader Day Centre. The Commission is recommended to receive these presentations.
Minutes:
Janet McKenna, Social Care and Health Convenor for the Leicester City Council branch of Unison, made the following representation to the Commission under the consultation on the proposal to stop running the Douglas Bader Day Service:-
· The rationale given for the proposed closure of the Douglas Bader Day Centre was a reduction in numbers. However, the Centre had 60 people on its books and 35 attended daily. These were good numbers;
· The personalisation agenda could lead to a reduction in numbers attending, but the Council did not help the situation, for example by recently not referring people there. The Council’s 2011 budget included a planned strategy to manage referrals to prevent placement at this Centre, but it was not known if this had become a Council policy;
· An advantage of closing the Centre had been stated to be the flexibility offered to service users by personal assistants. However, no consideration had been given to whether current staff could provide this service. This was more than a traditional Day Centre and it had forged good links with the community;
· Unison was disappointed that other options for buildings had not been considered, (for example, whether they could be available for community use), particularly as staff at the Centre were willing to work flexibly, (for example, in the evenings);
· Not all of the Centre’s clients would benefit from the work of the Inclusion team, as some were highly dependent;
· A lot of services had closed, but there were other alternatives. Public services should be provided by the public sector, to keep accountability; and
· If the cost of the service was not the main driver in the proposal to close the Day Centre, the Council was asked to consider the suggestions made by staff for how to keep the Centre operating.
On behalf of the Commission, the Chair thanked Janet McKenna for attending the meeting.
The Commission made the following points in discussion:-
o The principle of closing this provision was wrong, as individual budgets and direct payments were not right for everyone;
o Closing the Centre would leave no “safety net” for those needing a higher level of support and help to organise their social contact;
o When this type of facility closed it was very hard to replace it;
o The Council had a role in providing services needed by residents and this was the only centre operated by the Council for those with physical disabilities and mental health issues;
o Offering no alternative options in a consultation meant that residents were not being offered a true choice, as their preferences could not be established;
o It appeared that staff had not been consulted on how flexible they could be, (for example, whether they were willing to provide services during evenings or weekends). However, the nature of adult social services care was that it was needed at all times, not just in office hours. It would be a concern if staff could not adapt to that;
o It would be disappointing if the main impetus for the proposed changes was problems with the building being used, as the focus should be on how a service could be delivered in a different way; and
o A full discussion of these issues should be held, based on all the evidence available, (for example, attendance figures, the cost of maintaining the building, salary costs), and identifying the alternatives available, (for example, keeping the service, but moving it to another building, such as a community centre).
In reply to a question about whether the Day Centre staff would be willing to continue working with Centre users, but in another building, Janet McKenna explained that it was recognised that the current Day Centre was a large building that needed upgrading. For this reason, it currently was not possible to work in small groups, so all activities had to be either building-based, or one-to-one. It was hoped that this could be explored further with Centre staff and users during the consultation. However, for a consultation to be carried out on the assumption that the Centre would close would mean that any staff consultation would be about redundancies.
RESOLVED:
1) That the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission endorses the views of unison recorded above; and
2) That the representations by Unison recorded above be considered as part of the Council’s consultation on the proposal to stop running the Douglas Bader Day service.