Families and carers of people who use the Wellington House day centre are planning a protest outside Hove Town Hall next week.
They said that the potential closure of the day centre would be a “disaster” and that Brighton and Hove City Council would end up spending more than the £400,000 that officials hoped to save.
The council voted through the £400,000 cut at the annual budget meeting in February on the back of a plan to close the day centre for adults with learning disabilities.
With the council’s cabinet due to discuss a “carers strategy” at a meeting on Monday (29 June), campaigners are planning to protest from 10am outside the town hall in Norton Road.
More than 3,300 people have signed a petition on the Change.org website, headed Save Wellington House Learning Disability Day Centre in Brighton and Hove, calling on the council to protect the service.
The results of a 12-week consultation are due to be presented to the council’s cabinet later this year.
Parents and carers have warned that plans to close Wellington House are likely to cost the council more than the £400,000 that it hopes to save from the move.
The day centre provides much-needed respite for families and carers and one campaigner said that if just two families were no longer able to cope, the cost of two residential placements would outweigh any saving from the closure.
Labour councillor Mitchie Alexander, the council’s cabinet member for communities, equalities, public health and adult social care, said that she was committed to meeting with families to shape future services.
Lou Vaughan, whose brother attends the centre, said: “We want to show the council we disagree with their proposal – and get more public support. We plan to give out flyers with a link to our petition at the protest.
“We’re generally angry with the council for targeting vulnerable people to make savings, for looking at numbers, not people, and we feel we’ve been lied to by the council.”
Why dont the council cut a couple of high paid higher ups if they want to save money? Oh right, that would affect them. Can’t have poor BHCC leaders out of a job can we….
But the council was happy to BORROW money to feck up Valley Gardens for all residents and visitors whether they drive, coach/bus walk or cycle. How was this a priority over keeping a day centre open which ultimately saves the council money if it is keeping these vulnerable individuals out of full time Social Care by enabling their carers and families to have a break AND keeping their loved ones active and stimulated to help prevent cognitive decline?
And Valley Gardens is just one example of wasteful vanity projects which have done nothing to help people or help the city economically yet the council have either borrowed money or helped themselves to large chunks out of our council tax when their original ‘capital funding’ ran out. The city is now £420m in debt and the residents of Wellington House are being forced to pay the price for an out of control administration.
“Phase 3 of the Valley Gardens project (stretching from Old Steine to the Palace Pier roundabout) cost £13 million. While originally estimated at around £7.8 million, the budget increased due to construction inflation and pandemic-related delays. The final scheme was funded by a £6 million government grant, supplemented by council borrowing and local transport budgets.”
Two different funding streams that can’t be used for each other. You could not have VG, and the same situation would still apply.
The council isn’t closing the day centre, without first ensuring that every one of the 21 adults who currently go there have another day service to go to. It’s not about closing the centre and the attendees then not having a day centre to go to. There are 6 other day services providers in the city currently and there is interest from other providers to set up here too. There is no money from the council’s Adult Social Care budget going into Valley Gardens. Savings need to be made within the Adult Social Care budget. All services within Adult Social Care need to take a careful look at what is spent on what and it is only fair to everyone receiving support from Adult Social Care in our city, that best valve is achieved within every service, to ensure that everyone needing Adult Social Care support receives the best possible care. There is no getting away from the fact that some of the 21 adults will find a change in the day centre they go to very difficult and it might take them a while to settle in. In an ideal world there would be less need in the city for Adult Social Care support and more money in the budget. But the fact is that running Wellington House is very expensive (costs over £800,000 a year to run for 21 adults, who mostly go there part time (ie 2 sessions a week). And everyone receiving Adult Social Care support in our city is vulnerable to an extent and the council needs to take a deep dive on where money can be saved and if this means closing a council run day centre and the 21 one people attending one of the city’s other 6 providers instead, then this needs to be done sadly. If the council, like so many others, wasn’t able to keep within it’s budgets and then the government had to take over it’s running, they would look at stuff like why the council were running a day centre for 21 part time attendees costing over £800,000 a year, when each person could be going to one of the other not for profit providers for a cost of £400,000 for those 21 people a year instead. There are lots of adults with learning disabilities’ in our city and the council has a duty to ensure that the future for everyone is sustainable. Again, there is no getting away from the fact that some of the adults will find going to a new place for their day car/opportunities hard. And if it was one of my family members, then i too would be really hoping that the centre wouldn’t close and i too would stand outside Hove Town Hall with a banner, in the hope that the council would take the money from another part of Adult Social Care instead, a part that didn’t affect my family member.
This simply isn’t true!
Here are some facts!
– It is not £800000 a year its closer to £600000
– the council is saying they are in dire straits and needs to save £400000 by closing this service… What the Councilor is not telling you is they are willing to spend nearly £2 million of tax payer money to reprovide in the public/independent sector!
Why are your figures multiplied by 10?
? They are pitching a £400,000 saving in order to spend nearly £2 million to private sector companies… That’s not the labour I voted for.
err no …. where on earth did you get this 2 million figure from ?
Is this true, Alex hasn’t denied it??????!
6 other day centres who are either full to capacity or do not support a cohort of the same level of need ! Everyone is well aware the other services are unable to meet the extra demand you’re trying to place on them . Either with staffing levels or building requirements.
If it were that straightforward I dare say the money would already have been being saved & service users placed during the last overhaul of welly house !
It’s wrong of you as a councillor to imply the carers & families are somehow being selfish about these cuts! The stats you’re quoting are wrong- check your info source.
Part of the consultation is about talking with the other providers and finding out what they need to do in order to increase their capacity…more staff, a new building etc
The Council quoted that “complex” needs cost £220/day. Assuming all 21 service users are complex, and only use the service twice a week as Cllr Alexander reports, the cost for the 51 weeks a year is £471,240, not £800,000.
Regardless of this, these 21 people are PEOPLE, not numbers and should be treated as such!
Not all the attendees have complex needs and Wellington House costs £220 per day per person to run, whether they are attending all five days or just two half days a week.
2 million… What about the bins?
Part of the consultation is the council speaking to the other providers and negotiating how they can expand to meet future requirements. Also having discussions with new providers to the city. If the council do decide to close Welly House , it won’t suddenly close over night. Time will have to be taken to match every current attendee with a suitable place and it may take a bit of time for capacity to be increased within the other providers. Also, why do you think the council’s stats are wrong ?
At the cost of nearly £2millon a year and that’s just the 21 people who attend that day centre? Can the Councilor tell us how that’s cost effective?
i didn’t say it cost 2 million pounds a year to run. I said it cost 800,000 a year to run
Several key omissions from the councillor: the building also houses at least 70 social workers and admin and psych team professionals all of whom will need office space and consulting rooms Brighton Council have led England in selling off it’s buildings in recent years,and HTH is full.The council are purchasing buildings now,as they have realised the frantic selling off was misplaced.
Adult disability services are still highly over managed with no deference to the staff who actually deliver services,and provide the key skillset: a relationship built up over years with the service users.
There is no savings to be made ,as it is public money that goes to pay for the places in the ‘ independent ‘ and for profit sector.
Lastly this is about a policy of local austerity,that flies in the face of national policies.The accumulative evidence shows years of offloading disability provision from the public centre.Losing highly skilled staff,who work to a standard.Oh,and unit cost figures can be anything you want them to be,to substantiate an unannounced policy of providing only what one is legally obliged to .