Saving the day centres

Saving the Day Centres

Haringey has modelled its budget proposals on the Local Government Association’s Adult Social Care Efficiency Programme, which assumes budget savings of around 3% per year, less than half the 7% annual cut proposed by Haringey in its three year budget plan. Anticipating further austerity measures in its report published in July 2014, the LGA warned that ‘some councils are beginning to believe that they cannot make the level of savings required without putting their basic services for vulnerable people at risk’.

But Haringey has carried on regardless, recommending cuts on a greater scale than other local authorities and over a longer period. Over the past 10 weeks, Haringey Council has railroaded its proposals through a token consultation process. Apart from withdrawing plans to cut care packages that were probably illegal, it has ignored all representations from service users, families and carers.

In 2012 a Mencap study revealed that budget cuts had already drastically reduced day services around the country, with damaging consequences for people with disabilities and families and carers. It also noted that the shift to personal budgets had resulted in a reduction in day activities, as service users could not afford the increased costs. Some 80% of carers reported that they had ‘reached breaking point’. This is the context in which Haringey plans to close three out of four remaining day centres in the borough and, in particular, the only dedicated autism service, at Roundway.

Though the Council has suggested that a ‘social enterprise’ might replace existing day services, it has given no indication of how this approach could maintain the structure and expertise provided by current provisions, in relation to people with dementia and mental health problems as well as those with autism and learning disabilities. In all these circumstances, we recommend that the Roundway and other day centres should remain open until satisfactory replacements are fully operational.

Michael Fitzpatrick, Save Autism Services Haringey