Mum slams Bucks Council's plans to shut disabled adults’ centres and urges public for help

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A mother has slammed Buckinghamshire Council’s plans to shut some of its day centres for disabled adults.

Hazel Howe urged the public to take part in a consultation on the potential closures, which ends on 31 January.

“We are now struggling with our own mental health,” she said as she spoke on behalf of a group of parents outside Burnham Day Centre, one of four sites affected by the council’s plans.

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She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We are going to fight this, and we are not going to stop, even after the consultation ends on the 31st.”

The council has proposed to stop running its ‘Short Breaks’ service from Buckingham Day Centre, Burnham Day Centre, Hillcrest Day Centre in High Wycombe and Seeleys House Short Breaks Centre in Beaconsfield, which also provides overnight respite.

The ‘Short Breaks’ service provides adults with disabilities and complex needs with the chance to socialise and take part in a wide range of day activities at the council’s seven respite centres.

Specialised equipment, a sensory room, a wheelchair swing and a large garden are just some of the facilities on offer at the sites.

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The service provides a ‘vital’ lifeline to carers, who are often elderly and rely on the ‘short breaks’ the respite centres provide them.

Hazel Howe And Thomas. Photo from Charlie Smith/Local Democracy Reporting ServiceHazel Howe And Thomas. Photo from Charlie Smith/Local Democracy Reporting Service
Hazel Howe And Thomas. Photo from Charlie Smith/Local Democracy Reporting Service

Under the council’s ‘preferred’ plan to stop services at the four centres above, the authority says it would retain Aylesbury Opportunity Centre, Chesham Short Breaks Centre and Spring Valley Day Centre in High Wycombe and would further invest in these sites.

The council argues its plan is necessary in order to save its target of £700,000 from the Short Breaks service by April 2026 and that some centres are ‘underused and ‘in poor condition’.

However, families argue the service has not been promoted properly and dispute the claim some of the centres need repairs, pointing to the recent refurbishment of the Burnham site.

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Hazel’s 32-year-old son Thomas has severe epilepsy and other disabilities and has visited the Burnham centre for 13 years.

Carole Frost L And Cole Caesar R. Photo from Charlie Smith/Local Democracy Reporting ServiceCarole Frost L And Cole Caesar R. Photo from Charlie Smith/Local Democracy Reporting Service
Carole Frost L And Cole Caesar R. Photo from Charlie Smith/Local Democracy Reporting Service

She said: “Bucks are saying they ‘need to save X amount of money’. We are talking peanuts. We are talking about the most vulnerable individuals and a group of individuals that have high complex needs.

“They are the most vulnerable in our communities and in our country. These cuts are targeted at the wrong people and quite honestly, it’s disgraceful. We are angry.”

Hazel was joined outside the Burnham centre this week by Carole Frost who is standing for the village in the Bucks Council elections on May 1.

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She told the LDRS: “It will put pressure on other services in our locality. I think [the council] just think they can ride roughshod over us at the moment.

“We just cannot let this happen. We are supposed to be a civilised society. The closure of the centre does not follow that.”

The councillor hopeful was also joined by Cole Caesar, another Burnham candidate, who claimed any revenue costs saved from the closure of the centres and any money made from the sales of the sites would be spent quickly.

The candidate argued that it would be more cost-effective for the council to keep the centres open, rather than potentially have to pay for expensive external provision in the future.

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He told the LDRS: “We know – like the council – they have done something like this before and they have outsourced a service and then they’ve realised they should have kept it in-house.

“We are trying to help it and say, ‘don’t do this’. It may seem like a big cost at the moment to them – if that is actually true – but in the long-run, it will be cheaper than third-partying it out to businesses.”

Hazel also warned that the ‘wonderful, caring’ staff at the centres could be made redundant under the plans.

She added: “Once we close these services, we will never get them back. There are special educational needs children coming in from schools through transition this year.

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“Where are they all going to go? Why aren’t Bucks Council promoting these services because there is a high demand for these services? They are saying that they are under capacity.

“The only reason that they are not full is because Bucks Council didn’t allow the service users to come from groups and residential homes with supported living. Those clients are desperate to come back.”

Angela Macpherson, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for health and wellbeing stressed that ‘no final decision’ had been made on the council’s plans.

She told the LDRS: “We are committed to ensuring that every adult who is supported by adult social care continues to receive the high-quality support that they need.

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“While council-run services are highly valued, the challenges cannot be ignored. In recent years, the number of people accessing our services has fallen and buildings are underused. Some buildings also require significant investment, and the service is not providing value for money.

“We have extended our current consultation until Friday 31 January 2025 to enable more time for feedback on this important issue and I would encourage everyone who hasn’t yet done so to take part.

“We have identified a preferred option in the consultation which is to operate a smaller number of council-run day centres offering specialist provision and combining this with increasing the delivery of day and overnight respite services provided by external organisations.”

Email the council at [email protected] to share your thoughts on its plans. More details on the consultation are available online.

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