Centres for adults with complex needs to be sold under plan to make council up to £6m

Day centres used by vulnerable adults will be closed and sold off if plans drawn up by Buckinghamshire Council are followed through.

The unitary authority runs a service called ‘short breaks’ to help adults with autism, learning and physical disabilities, mental health needs, dementia and other complex needs improve their lives and skills with vital support and activities.

However, the council wants to stop delivering the services at four of its seven day centres and deliver them elsewhere, while keeping three of the sites open under a plan to save £14.4 million in adult social care over the next 18 months.

The plan, the council’s ‘preferred option’, would see the day centres in Aylesbury, Chesham and Spring Valley in High Wycombe kept open, while those in Buckingham, Burnham, Hillcrest in High Wycombe and Seeleys House in Beaconsfield would be repurposed or sold.

Selling the Burnham, Hillcrest and Seeleys House sites could make generate a ‘capital receipt’ of between £2.14 and £6.77 million for the council, while the Buckingham centre could be used for provision for young people special educational needs and disabilities.

The council argues that its short breaks service ‘is not providing value for money’ compared to other services, that the ‘building-based day care is now out-dated’ and that demand for the service has dropped by 61 per cent since 2020, meaning that it now only supports 128 people across the seven sites.

However, some of the families of adults in the service are outraged at what they see as the council cutting vital services for some of Buckinghamshire’s most vulnerable people as it tries to tighten its belt.

“When making these cuts they always seem to target people with learning disabilities and special needs,” said Hazel Howe, whose 32-year-old son attends session at the council’s day centre in Burnham.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), she added: “We fully understand the council has got to make cuts. We get that, but they need to be talking to the parents.”

The families of people in the service will be consulted on the plans after the council’s cabinet – its decision-making executive – is asked to approve a public consultation next week.

The council has stressed that the plans are only proposals at this stage and the cabinet member for health and wellbeing Angela Macpherson told the LDRS that the council would be looking to gather views on the plans, ‘depending on the outcome of discussions at cabinet’.
But the proposal to shut day centres could have a huge impact on adults using the service, say their families, with many of the adults with additional needs finding it hard to deal with change.

Hazel’s son, who has a form of cerebral palsy, scoliosis, severe learning disabilities and uses a wheelchair, benefits from the use of the sensory room at Burnham, as well as activities on offer including crafts, walks, baking, bingo, storytelling and physiotherapy.

She said: “Our children have been there years. This is their life. This is very important to them. Their central point is their day centres.”

However, the resident also pointed out how important the day centres are to the families of the adults using them, providing carers with respite and support.

She added: “Some families are in their seventies and they are still looking after their son or daughter that go to these centres.

“This is their break, the one time they get a break. They could be up during the night with their son or daughter. This is their lifeline.”

Cllr Macpherson claimed that in recent years, the number of people accessing these services had ‘fallen dramatically’.

She said: “This trend, combined with the fact that some of the centres require extensive investment and modernisation, has led to a review taking place to determine the way such services should be provided in the future.

“The council is duty-bound to provide value for money services for residents and service users and in line with the reduced use of council-run day and respite centres, is putting forward proposals to operate a smaller number of council-run day centres offering specialist provision and combining this with more external services.

“This would mean the council can support more people at these sites with the right extra staffing and investment in the buildings.”